GxP Lifeline

 

  • Ruined by Best Efforts

    22 May, 2014 by Craig Gygi, Executive Vice President, MasterControl Inc.

    When W. Edwards Deming famously said, “We are being ruined by ‘best efforts,’” he was conveying the idea that simply striving to improve—even with laudable effort—can actually have the opposite outcome. How can this be? How could good intentions and diligent work ever possibly sabotage us? Well, they do all the time.

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  • How to Cut Your Document-Approval Cycle Time Using Escalation

    27 May, 2014 by Marty Jackson, Professional Services Consultant, MasterControl Inc.

    From SOPs and procedures to CAPAs and deviations, most regulated companies maintain document-based and form-based processes for compliance and business reasons. How do you get approval for your documents and forms? How many processes do you have and how long is your approval cycle time for each one?

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  • How Can You Measure the Return on Your QMS Investment?

    29 May, 2014 by James Jardine, Marketing Communications, MasterControl Inc.

    Every provider of electronic quality management systems claims its product will give you a significant return on your investment. But how can this ROI be truly measured? To find out, MasterControl recently surveyed customers to learn more about their levels of waste and efficiency before and after implementation of MasterControl's quality management system (QMS). Some of the results of the survey are compiled here in an informative infographic.

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  • Five Trends Transforming the Medical Device Industry in 2014

    5 June, 2014 by Lisa Weeks, Marketing Communications, MasterControl Inc.

    Five Trends Transforming the Medical Device Industry in 2014

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  • 7 Steps to CAPA Success

    10 June, 2014 by David R. Butcher, Marketing Communications, MasterControl

    A formal Corrective Action/Preventive Action (CAPA) can be a powerful tool for meeting current regulatory requirements. Done right, the systematic investigation of the root causes of identified problems or identified risks will prevent their occurrence or recurrence. For many companies, however, a crucial obstacle to CAPA success persists: adequate documentation of actions taken to achieve quality success.

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  • MasterControl Demonstrating Quality Management Software at MD&M East and DIA

    12 June, 2014 by Robyn Barnes, Marketing Communications, MasterControl Inc.

    June is the month for weddings and trade shows. Though we're not celebrating any nuptials, you’ll find MasterControl at MD&M East this week and at DIA the week of June 15.

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  • Quality’s Role in Drug Approvals

    12 June, 2014 by Theresa Allio, Ph.D.

    In a recent review, I summarized the underlying reasons contributing to delayed market entry for 51 product applications submitted to CDER between 2009 and 2012.1 Reasons cited in the complete response letters issued for these applications covered a number of areas, including safety, efficacy, regulatory, labeling and quality related issues. Quality- related issues were one of the most prominent reasons for delay of market entry with deficiencies being cited in 20/51 (39%) of applications. GMP inspection failures and data deficiencies contributed equally to the quality citations. The prominence of quality-related issues in the delay of product approvals emphasizes the importance of robust quality programs in drug development. Understanding what elements have posed as hurdles in past development programs will help a sponsor avoid these pitfalls in the future.

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  • 3 Common Cybersecurity Mistakes in Pharma (and How to Avoid Them)

    17 June, 2014 by Jim King, Senior VP of Technical Support & Infrastructure, MasterControl Inc.

    Due to the ever-rising position of information as a valuable commodity, organizations must take steps to protect their data. For pharma and life sciences companies, the question is not if their digital data will be compromised, but when. Here are three common security mistakes made by enterprises and ways to avoid those mistakes by focusing on employee behavior.

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  • Partnering with Quality Professionals Worldwide

    19 June, 2014 by Jon Beckstrand, CEO, MasterControl Inc.

    MasterControl has grown our reach significantly over the last 10 years—from a small provider of a narrowly focused document control product to one of the largest organizations in the world focused on helping quality and compliance professionals achieve their purpose. I have met with many of the world’s top quality professionals over the past 10 years and I have been amazed by their devotion and commitment. I have recently found myself asking the question: What drives these dedicated people? Why are they so passionate about their jobs? I believe I have found the answer and it has had a strong effect on how I view MasterControl’s mission.

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  • Creating a Global Regulatory Plan

    24 June, 2014 by Cheryl Wagoner, Wagoner Consulting LLC

    Having and maintaining strong global regulatory strategy and plans can help your business not only stay in compliance but can be an integral part of corporate market growth strategies. How many of us have jumped into a new market before fully understanding the regulatory requirements and the potential impact of those requirements? If you have, you are not alone. Mapping the requirements as part of your strategic planning may help you identify a great new market or help you avoid a costly mistake.

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  • Changes to China’s Medical Device Law Take Effect This Month; Here’s What You Need to Know.

    26 June, 2014 by Lisa Weeks, Marketing Communications, MasterControl

    On March 31, 2014, the Chinese State Council unveiled its amended “Regulations for the Supervisions and Administration of Medical Devices,” aka State Council Decree No. 650. The amended decree, which went into effect on June 1, 2014, will be enforced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s counterpart in China, the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), formerly known as the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). While many industry observers have characterized the CFDA as being unnecessarily complicated and intentionally ambiguous, the modernization of its fourteen-year-old medical device law suggests that Chinese regulators are finally making strides to facilitate the device approval process, while simultaneously cracking down on overpricing and corporate malpractice. In this post, we’ll compare the updated decree to the original and discuss how the new regulations will impact manufacturers hoping to break into China’s lucrative medical device market.

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  • Happy Employees Matter

    1 July, 2014 by Curt Porritt, Senior Vice President Marketing, MasterControl Inc.

    Every year, Fortune Magazine publishes a list of the top 100 companies to work for. These companies are well known for how well they treat their employees. In 2005, Deloitte Consulting decided to see if there was a correlation between a positive work environment and corporate success. They tracked the shareholder returns of the 56 publicly traded companies on Fortune’s 2005 list of best companies to work for. According to this study, these companies not only consistently beat the S&P 500, but “walloped it.” Companies that have happy employees apparently have a better chance of success than those who don’t. As Deloitte principle Bob Dalton explained, “This puts real data on something that seems intuitively true.” *

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  • Listening and Being Heard are Important to Regulated Companies

    3 July, 2014 by Brian Curran, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Strategy, MasterControl Inc.

    If you’re wondering why your company should listen to your customers, or why as a customer you should be heard, just think of Twitter. Twitter and hashtags seem synonymous. But hashtags didn’t exist until a user suggested it in 2007. It took two years before Twitter, which was founded in 2006, started hyperlinking hashtags.

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  • Are You Ensuring Supplier Quality?

    8 July, 2014 Christine Park, Quality Architech, Christine Park & Associates

    "Everyone cares about quality. Just ask them. However, unless someone actively measures quality performance, you must question the commitment to improvement."

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  • 7 Steps to Respond to an FDA 483 Inspection Observation

    15 July, 2014 by Robert Packard, President, Medical Device Academy

    Responding in 15 days is one of seven steps on how to respond to an FDA 483 inspection observation. This blog post also includes advice from a former FDA investigator.

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  • How the New FDA Final Rule and Guidance on Electronic Submissions Will Impact Devicemakers

    17 July, 2014 by Lisa Weeks, Marketing Communications, MasterControl

    In February of 2014, the FDA issued a final rule amending 21 C.F.R. Part 803, Medical Device Reporting, to require medical device manufacturers and importers to submit initial and supplemental MDRs in an electronic format, rather than in paper form through Form FDA 3500A. The “Final Rule” will take effect on August 14, 2015, which means you have only 13 months to revise your MDR procedures to comply with the new requirements and to secure a production account for submitting eMDRs to the FDA. Will you be ready?

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  • How to Conduct Better Effectiveness Checks and Management Reviews within Your CAPA Process

    24 July, 2014 by Lisa Weeks, Marketing Communications, MasterControl

    In the final segment of a three-part QEM/CAPA webinar series, quality expert Ken Peterson discusses the importance of effectiveness checks within the CAPA process. He also explains the difference between process verification and process validation, and why knowing which process to use (and when to use it) is paramount to a successful CAPA methodology. Peterson closes the webinar by summarizing the current models and best practices being used in management review, data collection, and charting to enhance CAPA decision making in all areas of your business. This is a summary of that discussion. If you wish to view the webinar in its entirety, please click on the link provided at the end of the post.

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  • Current Issues in Medical Device Risk Management

    29 July, 2014 by Edwin Bills, RAC Consultant

    Medical devices have been developed with some requirements for product safety since the implementation of the Medical Device Amendments of 1976 to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.  Initially FDA required manufacturers to submit information related to safety as part of the 510(k) premarket notification process, providing comparative data on predicate devices versus the device under consideration.  In the more rigorous Premarket Approval (PMA) process, more detailed safety inform

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  • Questions All Auditors Should Ask: The Use and Misuse of Audit Checklists

    31 July, 2014 by Laurie Meehan, Polaris Compliance Consultants, Inc.

    There’s nothing wrong with using a good checklist, as long as you remember that there will always be something wrong with your checklist. It is simply not possible to develop a checklist that will get to the core of every problem, that will cover every scenario, or that will ever be any reasonable substitute for that all important question: “Why?” So how can you develop the best checklists possible and avoid relying on them too heavily?

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  • 5 Ways to Cut Medical Device Development Time with Embedded Design Teams

    5 August, 2014 by Chris Hammond, Director of Insight & Innovation, Kaleidoscope and Sean J. Barnett, MD, MS, FACS, FAAP, Chief Medical Officer, Kaleidoscope

    For medical product development, the rigors of input gathering and iterative concept testing may slow down innovation process and subsequently increase costs. Building on user-centered design principles, creating an Embedded Design Team with clinicians and design professionals in a co-creation atmosphere provides a revolutionary way to drive speed to market.

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