| Public Health Service Food and Drug Administration |
10903 New Hampshire Avenue |
Department of Health and Human ServicesMAR 28 2011
WARNING LETTER
VIA UNITED PARCEL SERVICE
Mr. Anchie Kuo, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer
ARC Medical Supplies (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
66 Qian Ban Bi Jie
Xizhimen Nei Beijing
Beijing, China 100035
Dear Dr. Kuo:
During an inspection of your firm located in Beijing, China on December 6, 2010, through December 14, 2010, an investigator from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determined that your firm manufactures surgical sutures for human and veterinary use. Under section 201(h) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act), 21 U.S.C. § 321(h), these products are devices because they are intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or are intended to affect the structure or function of the body.
This inspection revealed that these devices are adulterated within the meaning of section 501(h) of the Act (21 U.S.C. § 351(h)), in that the methods used in, or the facilities or controls used for, their manufacture, packing, storage, or installation are not in conformity with the current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) requirements of the Quality System (QS) regulation found at Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 820.
We received a response from you dated December 27, 2010, concerning our investigator’s observations noted on the Form FDA 483, List of Inspectional Observations, that was issued to you. We address this response below, in relation to each of the noted violations. These violations include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. Failure to adequately ensure that when the results of a process cannot be fully verified by subsequent inspection and test that the process shall be validated with a high degree of assurance and approved according to established procedure, as required by 21 CFR 820.75(a).
For example:
a. There was no documentation available to demonstrate that the validation reports for ethylene oxide and gamma irradiation sterilization processes have been approved for use by management.
b. Storage conditions were not defined or monitored for the chemical indicators used in the Ethylene Oxide validation study as well as routine processing.
c. The time and temperature specifications used to incubate the biological indicators to determine growth of microorganisms, were not adequately defined. For instance, there was no documentation that the (b)(4) biological indicators (BI) were incubated for (b)(4) hours and there was no justification for using a temperature range for incubating BI that differed from the recommended temperature of the BI manufacturer.
We reviewed your response and concluded that it is not adequate because there is insufficient information to ensure that the sterilization processes were appropriately validated and that a systemic corrective action has been implemented. You stated that you do sterility tests on (b)(4) batch sterilized by gamma irradiation or by the Ethylene Oxide process, however, there is no information provided on the process parameters that will be used during the sterilization process. For instance, your response does not address if a minimum and maximum dose will be established for gamma radiation. Additionally, there is insufficient information provided to ensure that sterility testing by itself is an acceptable method of ensuring that the sterilization processes have been validated and that there is no information to ensure that the sample sizes used for the sterility testing are based on statistical rationale.
Additionally, your response reveals that temperature storage controls have not been established. Your response states that the vendor of the chemical indicator has not responded to your request of the storage temperature range recommendations of “ (b)(4).” You stated that you will either receive an appropriate response or change suppliers to one that can give an accurate temperature range that your firm can monitor.
2. Failure to develop, conduct, control and monitor production processes to ensure that a device conforms to its specifications, as required by 21 CFR 820.70(a). Where deviations from device specifications could occur as a result of the manufacturing process, the manufacturer shall establish and maintain process control procedures that describe any process controls necessary to ensure conformance to specifications.
For example:
a. There is no documentation provided by the contract sterilizer, (b)(4), to ensure that the dose delivered during the sterilization process of the sutures was within the minimum and maximum doses. Instead, sterility testing is conducted. The contract sterilizer only provides certification (b)(4) in order to document the sterilization dose delivered for (b)(4) of the sterilization lots.
Your response did not address this observation since it was supported from the information provided in the EIR.
3. Failure to establish and maintain schedules for the adjustment, cleaning, and other maintenance of equipment to ensure that manufacturing specifications are met and maintenance activities, including the date and individuals performing the maintenance, shall be documented, as required by 21 CFR 820.70(g)(1). For example:
a. There is no documentation of monitoring or maintenance activity for the (b)(4) hood which is used to prepare microbiological samples, nor is there a procedure to ensure that the monitoring process is adequate to ensure proper operation.
b. SOP-JZ034 section 4.7, Operating Bacterial Testing Procedure, requires (b)(4) inspection of the operating temperature of the incubator when microbiological samples are being incubated. These (b)(4) inspections are not documented.
We reviewed your response and concluded that it is not adequate because the systemic corrective action is not addressed. Although a new operating instruction SOP-JZ019 (Operating Hood Cleaning Instructions) has been established, there is no information provided on why the maintenance activities were not established originally and what corrective actions have been incorporated to prevent this type of activity from occurring again. Your response also includes a new form to be used by the operator to record temperature of the incubator, however there is no indication that you evaluated other areas of your quality system to ensure other activities that require documentation are being documented.
4. Failure to establish and maintain adequate procedures to control all documents that are required by this part (21 CFR 820), as required by 21 CFR 820.40. For example, SOP010 (SOP Control of Manufacturing Process) version 1.0 states that the Quality Manual will be reviewed by the management team and approved by the general manager and that quality brochures are approved by the operating manager. However, no individuals were identified with the responsibility for approving the standard operating procedures. Thirty-two standard operating procedures were reviewed but not signed as approved and these procedures were released for use by employees.
We reviewed your response and determined that it is not adequate since it does not describe the systemic corrective action to prevent the recurrence of the quality problems. Your response stated that the procedure in question is SOP001 version 1.0 and not SOP 010 version 1.0 and that document control procedures have been put in place that designate who should review and approve standard procedures and operating instructions. The change to the procedure was submitted for our review. Additionally, you provided information that you reviewed and approved the 32 procedures and provided one of the coversheets as an example, which was approved on December 9, 2010. However, the actions taken to ensure this type of document control deficiency does not occur again is not discussed in the response.
5. Failure to identify by suitable means the acceptance status of product, to indicate the conformance or nonconformance of product with acceptance criteria. The identification of acceptance status shall be maintained throughout manufacturing, packaging, labeling, installation, and servicing of the product to ensure that only product which has passed the required acceptance activities is distributed, used, or installed, as required by 21 CFR 820.86. For example, there is no documentation by whom or when the excess raw material and material that may not have met specifications had been removed from the production area, such as the quantity of the needles and the sutures not used for 3 of the (b)(4) device history records.
We reviewed your response and concluded that it is not adequate because it only addresses the revised procedure and the “Raw Material Control Form.” There is no information provided that systemic corrective action has been implemented.
A follow up inspection will be required to assure that corrections and/or corrective actions are adequate.
U.S. federal agencies are advised of the issuance of all Warning Letters about devices so that they may take this information into account when considering the award of contracts. Additionally, premarket approval applications for Class III devices to which the Quality System regulation deviations are reasonably related will not be approved until the violations have been corrected. Requests for Certificates to Foreign Governments will not be granted until the violations related to the subject devices have been corrected.
Please notify this office in writing within fifteen (15) working days from the date you receive this letter of the specific steps you have taken to correct the noted violations, including an explanation of how you plan to prevent these violations, or similar violations, from occurring again. Include documentation of the corrective action you have taken. If your planned corrections will occur over time, please include a timetable for implementation of those corrections. If corrective action cannot be completed within 15 working days, state the reason for the delay and the timeframe within which the corrections will be completed. Please provide a translation of documentation not in English to facilitate our review.
Your response should be sent to: Allen T. Wynn, USA FDA, CDRH-WO66, Rm. 2614, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20993. If you have any questions about the content of this letter please contact: Wayne Q. Miller at 301-796-5770 or 301-847-8137.
Finally, you should know that this letter is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of the violations at your facility. It is your responsibility to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations administered by FDA. The specific violations noted in this letter and in the Inspectional Observations, Form FDA 483 (FDA 483), issued at the closeout of the inspection may be symptomatic of serious problems in your firm’s manufacturing and quality assurance systems. You should investigate and determine the causes of the violations, and take prompt actions to correct the violations and to bring your products into compliance.
Sincerely yours,
/s/
Steven D. Silverman
Director
Office of Compliance
Center for Devices and
Radiological Health
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