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  • Enforcement

    • Every Claim You Make, Every Step You Take…CVM Will Be Watching YouApril 8th, 2025

      Promotional claims do not receive the most attention with respect to FDA enforcement these days, and veterinary promotion is no exception.  Indeed, most Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) Warning Letters arise because products advertised are actually new animal drugs.  But this year, CVM has issued …

    • ACI’s 43rd FDA Boot Camp – New York City EditionFebruary 27th, 2025

      The American Conference Institute’s popular “FDA Boot Camp” – now in its 43rd iteration – is scheduled to take place from March 19-20, 2025, at the NY Bar Association in New York, NY . The conference is billed as the premier event to provide folks …

    • In Uncertain Times, Good Compliance and Quality Communication Habits Can Offer a Port in the StormFebruary 26th, 2025

      The ongoing DOGE-led reductions to the federal workforce and recent sweeping policy changes have spawned many questions for compliance officers and quality managers in FDA-regulated companies. How will the cuts at FDA impact inspections and enforcement? Will there be a heightened appetite for mergers and …

    • Is FDA Man’s Best Friend’s Best Friend?January 16th, 2025

      On January 7, 2025, FDA announced that back on November 12, 2024, the Center for Veterinary Medicine (“CVM”) issued Warning Letters to six online retailers marketing unapproved new animal drug products that purported to treat and control seizures and epilepsy in dogs and cats.  At …

    • FDA Inspections: Lesson 1 – Interviewing EmployeesJanuary 10th, 2025

      This is the first in a series of blog posts on tips for successfully handling an FDA inspection.  Using publicly available examples, these “lessons” will illustrate potential pitfalls and strategies for interacting with FDA during and after an inspection.   Although FDA has long taken the …

    • Quiet on the Set? Forbidding FDA To Take Photographs During An Inspection Can Be RegrettableDecember 2nd, 2024

      A recent Warning Letter reflects an FDA citation of a company for refusing to permit FDA Investigators to take photographs during an inspection.  We haven’t seen an FDA Warning Letter citing a refusal to permit photographs for years, so, just as FDA is apparently reviving …

    • First Constitutional Challenge to FDA’s Civil Money Penalty AuthorityOctober 7th, 2024

      It took only 3 months.  In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the SEC cannot use its administrative authority to impose civil penalties for securities fraud on the ground that these penalties violate the U.S. Constitution’s Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial.  See SEC …

    • OPDP Says TV Ad is Out of Bounds with Fourth Untitled Letter of 2024September 18th, 2024

      FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP) has issued its fourth Untitled Letter of 2024 – this one to AbbVie, Inc. (AbbVie), for a direct-to-consumer (DTC) TV advertisement for its drug UBRELVY (ubrogepant) that features tennis star, social media influencer and entrepreneur Serena Williams.  This …

    • Days Go By* – Particularly When Responding to an FDA InspectionSeptember 13th, 2024

      While we hope readers of the Blog, as our clients and friends, come out of any FDA inspection with a clean bill of health, we know that based on FDA FY2024 data to date, approximately 40% of inspections of medical device companies end up classified …

    • It’s a Cruel Summer – Two New OPDP Untitled LettersAugust 12th, 2024

      FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP) has issued two new Untitled Letters this summer after 5 months without any letter activity. The letters are vastly different from one another in subject matter, but together they make a cruel summer of OPDP enforcement against industry. …

    • Supreme Court Rules that SEC and Potentially Other Agencies Cannot Impose Civil Penalties in Administrative ProceedingsJuly 9th, 2024

      On Thursday, the 27th of June, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy.  The court ruled that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may not impose fines to penalize securities in its administrative proceedings because that practice violates the …

    • Winter is Coming: How a Labor Case in SCOTUS Impacts FDA Injunction PowersJuly 3rd, 2024

      Among the tools that the government has to enforce the FDC Act is the injunctive power granted by Congress in 21 U.S.C. § 332. That statute provides that courts “shall have jurisdiction, for cause shown, to restrain violations” of the FDC Act. Historically, courts have …

    • Knock, Knock – FDA Issues Guidance on Best Processes and Practices During BIMO InspectionsJune 11th, 2024

      Among FDA-regulated establishments and stakeholders, there is one word that makes everyone go on edge – the dreaded FDA “inspection.” In an effort to clarify for industry and alleviate some of the stress associated with these activities, last week the FDA issued a draft guidance …

    • The OIG Don’t Like That: Rockin’ The Casbah, Rockin’ the CasbahJune 4th, 2024

      Today’s email brings an interesting, and somewhat confusing settlement of what should have been an ordinary antikickback statute case, and may bring about a clash between what many companies do and what the government may be objecting to.  Or, perhaps your loyal blogger is reading …

    • GAO Report on Clinical Research Inspections Encourages FDA to Care for its Clinical Inspection ProgramMarch 29th, 2024

      While Covid is in the rear view for most of us, FDA has had a tough time shaking off the effects of the pandemic on its inspection output. Inspections went down—way down—during the pandemic. In March 2020, FDA temporarily postponed all foreign and domestic and …