Descriptive Analysis of Good Clinical Practice Inspection Findings from U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency.
Jenn W Sellers, Camelia M Mihaescu, Kassa Ayalew, Phillip D Kronstein, Bei Yu, Yang-Min Ning, Miguel Rodriguez, LaKisha Williams, Ni A Khin
Author Information
Jenn W Sellers: Division of Clinical Compliance Evaluation, Office of Scientific Investigations, Office of Compliance, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, United States Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave, White Oak Building 51, Room 5324, Silver Spring, MD, 20993, USA. jenn.sellers@fda.hhs.gov.
Camelia M Mihaescu: Inspections Office, Quality and Safety of Medicines Department, European Medicines Agency (EMA), Domenico Scarlattilaan 6, 1083 HS, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Kassa Ayalew: Division of Clinical Compliance Evaluation, Office of Scientific Investigations, Office of Compliance, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, United States Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave, White Oak Building 51, Room 5324, Silver Spring, MD, 20993, USA.
Phillip D Kronstein: Division of Clinical Compliance Evaluation, Office of Scientific Investigations, Office of Compliance, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, United States Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave, White Oak Building 51, Room 5324, Silver Spring, MD, 20993, USA.
Bei Yu: Division of Clinical Compliance Evaluation, Office of Scientific Investigations, Office of Compliance, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, United States Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave, White Oak Building 51, Room 5324, Silver Spring, MD, 20993, USA.
Yang-Min Ning: Division of Clinical Compliance Evaluation, Office of Scientific Investigations, Office of Compliance, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, United States Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave, White Oak Building 51, Room 5324, Silver Spring, MD, 20993, USA.
Miguel Rodriguez: Inspections Office, Quality and Safety of Medicines Department, European Medicines Agency (EMA), Domenico Scarlattilaan 6, 1083 HS, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
LaKisha Williams: Division of Clinical Compliance Evaluation, Office of Scientific Investigations, Office of Compliance, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, United States Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave, White Oak Building 51, Room 5324, Silver Spring, MD, 20993, USA.
Ni A Khin: Division of Clinical Compliance Evaluation, Office of Scientific Investigations, Office of Compliance, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, United States Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave, White Oak Building 51, Room 5324, Silver Spring, MD, 20993, USA.
BACKGROUND: The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) have collaborated in good clinical practice (GCP) inspections since September 2009. The two agencies operate under different regulatory frameworks for GCP oversight. No systematic assessments of GCP inspection findings have been reported. METHODS: We identified common inspections of clinical investigators, sponsors, and contract research organizations conducted by both agencies in support of marketing applications that had the same trial data submitted between 2009 and 2015. We grouped inspection findings into deficiency areas. We reviewed and compared these findings and calculated concordance rate for each deficiency area. RESULTS: Twenty-six clinical investigator sites and 23 sponsors/contract research organizations were inspected by both agencies in support of 31 marketing applications during this period. For FDA, the most common GCP findings were deficiencies related to Protocol Compliance for clinical investigator inspections and Trial Management issues for sponsor/contract research organization inspections. For EMA, deficiencies related to Documentation (including Trial Master File) were the most common findings for both clinical investigator and sponsor/contract research organization inspections. There was high concordance, of approximately 90%, for deficiencies related to Protocol Compliance for clinical investigator inspections and Trial Management for sponsor/contract research organization inspections between the two agencies. There was a concordance rate of about 70% for Documentation deficiencies for both clinical investigator and sponsor/contract research organization GCP inspections. CONCLUSION: GCP inspection findings from 49 common clinical investigator and sponsor/contract research organization inspections were comparable, providing support for continued FDA-EMA GCP collaboration.
