WARNING LETTER
First Royal Care Co. LLC, dba Red Mountain Compounding Pharmacy MARCS-CMS 610384 —
- Delivery Method:
- VIA UPS
- Product:
- Drugs
- Recipient:
-
Recipient NameDawn Hoang, R.Ph.
-
Recipient TitleOwner
- First Royal Care Co. LLC, dba Red Mountain Compounding Pharmacy
6828 E. Brown Rd. Ste. 101
Mesa, AZ 85207-3761
United States
- Issuing Office:
- Division of Pharmaceutical Quality Operations IV
United States
WARNING LETTER
September 8, 2020
Dear Ms. Hoang:
From June 5, 2019, to June 14, 2019, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigator inspected your facility, First Royal Care Co. LLC, dba Red Mountain Compounding Pharmacy, located at 6828 E. Brown Rd. Ste. 101, Mesa, AZ 85207. During the inspection, the investigator noted that drug products you produced failed to meet the conditions of section 503A of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) [21 U.S.C. § 353a] for exemption from certain provisions of the FDCA. The investigator noted serious deficiencies in your practices for producing sterile drug products, which put patients at risk.
FDA issued a Form FDA 483 to your firm on June 14, 2019, an amended Form FDA 483 on July 1, 2019, and another amended Form FDA 483 on December 12, 2019. FDA acknowledges receipt of your facility’s responses, dated July 2, 2019 and August 30, 2019. FDA acknowledges your actions on August 12, 2019 and August 8, 2019, to voluntarily recall all sterile human and animal drug products within expiry, respectively. FDA also acknowledges your written commitment to cease production and distribution of drug products for office stock, effective June 7, 2019, and to cease all sterile production, effective August 5, 2019. Based on this inspection, it appears that you produced drug products that violate the FDCA.
A. Compounded Drug Products Under the FDCA
Section 503A of the FDCA describes the conditions under which human drug products compounded by a licensed pharmacist in a State licensed pharmacy or a Federal facility, or a licensed physician, qualify for exemptions from three sections of the FDCA: compliance with current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) (section 501(a)(2)(B)); labeling with adequate directions for use (section 502(f)(1)); and FDA approval prior to marketing (section 505) [21 U.S.C. §§ 351(a)(2)(B), 352(f)(1) and 355(a)].1 Receipt of valid prescriptions for individually-identified patients is one of the conditions for the exemptions under section 503A.
B. Failure to Meet the Conditions of Section 503A
During the inspection, the FDA investigator noted that drug products produced by your firm failed to meet the conditions of section 503A. For example, the investigator noted your firm did not receive valid prescriptions for individually-identified patients for a portion of the drug products you produced, such as lidocaine hydrochloride injectable solution and glutathione injectable solution.
Therefore, you compounded drug products that do not meet the conditions of section 503A and are not eligible for the exemptions in that section, including the FDA approval requirement of section 505 of the FDCA, the requirement under section 502(f)(1) of the FDCA that labeling bear adequate directions for use, and the requirement of compliance with CGMP under section 501(a)(2)(B) of the FDCA. In the remainder of this letter, we refer to your drug products that do not qualify for exemptions under section 503A as the “ineligible drug products.”
Specific violations are described below.
C. Violations of the FDCA
Adulterated Drug Products
The FDA investigator noted that drug products were prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions, whereby they may have become contaminated with filth or rendered injurious to health, causing your drug products to be adulterated under section 501(a)(2)(A) of the FDCA. For example:
1. Your smoke studies demonstrated that the air in this ISO 5 classified zone was turbulent and non-laminar near the work surface where aseptic operations were performed. Furthermore, there was a sweeping motion of smoke from the back of the ISO 5 zone towards the operator.
2. Your media fills were not performed under the most challenging or stressful conditions. Therefore, there is a lack of assurance that your firm can aseptically produce drug products within your facility.
3. Your firm used non-sterile cleaners to clean equipment and supplies being introduced into the ISO 5 area.
4. Your firm failed to sterilize mixing bars used to produce drug products intended to be sterile, to ensure no additional bioburden is introduced during sterile production.
5. Your firm did not use a sporicidal agent as part of your disinfection program for the aseptic processing area.
6. Your firm failed to confirm that the quality of water was suitable for its intended use in the production of non-sterile drug products.
Furthermore, the manufacture of the ineligible drug products is subject to FDA’s CGMP regulations, Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), parts 210 and 211. The FDA investigator observed significant CGMP violations at your facility, causing the ineligible drug products to be adulterated within the meaning of section 501(a)(2)(B) of the FDCA. The violations included, for example:
1. Your firm failed to establish and follow appropriate written procedures that are designed to prevent microbiological contamination of drug products purporting to be sterile, and that include validation of all aseptic and sterilization processes (21 CFR 211.113(b)).
2. Your firm failed to establish written standards or specifications, methods of testing, methods of cleaning, and methods of sterilization to remove pyrogenic properties (21 CFR 211.94(d)).
3. Your firm failed to establish an adequate system for cleaning and disinfecting the room and equipment to produce aseptic conditions (21 CFR 211.42(c)(10)(v)).
4. Your firm failed to establish an adequate system for monitoring environmental conditions in aseptic processing areas (21 CFR 211.42(c)(10)(iv)).
5. Your firm failed to have, for each batch of drug product, appropriate laboratory determination of satisfactory conformance to final specifications for the drug product, including the identity and strength of each active ingredient, prior to release (21 CFR 211.165(a)).
6. Your firm failed to conduct, for each batch of drug product, appropriate laboratory testing, as necessary, required to be free of objectionable microorganisms (21 CFR 211.165(b)).
7. Your firm failed to establish and follow an adequate written testing program designed to assess the stability characteristics of drug products and to use results of stability testing to determine appropriate storage conditions and expiration dates (21 CFR 211.166(a)).
8. Your firm failed to conduct laboratory testing to determine whether each batch of drug product purporting to be sterile and pyrogen-free conforms to such requirements (21 CFR 211.167(a)).
9. Your firm failed to thoroughly investigate any unexplained discrepancy or failure of a batch or any of its components to meet any of its specifications, whether or not the batch has already been distributed (21 CFR 211.192).
It is a prohibited act under section 301(k) of the FDCA [21 U.S.C. § 331(k)] to do any act with respect to a drug, if such act is done while the drug is held for sale after shipment in interstate commerce and results in the drug being adulterated.
Misbranded Drug Products
The ineligible drug products you compounded are intended for conditions not amenable to self-diagnosis and treatment by individuals who are not medical practitioners; therefore, adequate directions for use cannot be written so that a layman can use these products safely for their intended uses. Consequently, their labeling fails to bear adequate directions for their intended uses.2 Accordingly, these ineligible drug products are misbranded under section 502(f)(1) of the FDCA. It is a prohibited act under section 301(k) of the FDCA to do any act with respect to a drug, if such act is done while the drug is held for sale after shipment in interstate commerce and results in the drug being misbranded.
D. Corrective Actions
We have reviewed your firm’s responses to the Form FDA 483. We acknowledge your recall of all lots intended to be sterile that were within expiry due to a lack of sterility assurance on August 8, 2019 and August 12, 2019. FDA also acknowledges your statement that “[e]ffective August 5, 2019, Red Mountain has decided to voluntarily cease sterile compounding and does not intend to resume sterile compounding activities.”
Please be aware that section 501(a)(2)(A) of the FDCA concerning insanitary conditions applies regardless of whether drug products you compound meet the conditions of section 503A, including the condition on receipt of a prescription for an identified individual patient prior to compounding and distributing drug products.
Regarding issues related to the conditions of section 503A of the FDCA, your corrective action appears adequate. We acknowledge that your firm “has ceased the practice of dispensing compounded preparations for office use effective June 7, 2019 and has notified all prescribing physicians that compounded medications shall only be dispensed pursuant to the receipt of a valid prescription for an individually identified patient.”
Should you continue to compound and distribute drug products that do not meet the conditions of section 503A, the compounding and distribution of such drugs would be subject to the new drug approval requirement, the requirement to label drug products with adequate directions for use, and the drug CGMP regulations. Before doing so, you must comply with the requirements of section 505 and 502(f)(1) and fully implement corrections that meet the minimum requirements of the CGMP regulations.3
In addition to the issues discussed above, you should note that CGMP requires the implementation of quality oversight and controls over the manufacture of drugs, including the safety of raw materials, materials used in drug manufacturing, and finished drug products. See section 501 of the FDCA. If you choose to contract with a laboratory to perform some functions required by CGMP, it is essential that you select a qualified contractor and that you maintain sufficient oversight of the contractor’s operations to ensure that it is fully CGMP compliant. Regardless of whether you rely on a contract facility, you are responsible for assuring that drugs you produce are neither adulterated nor misbranded. [See 21 CFR 210.1(b), 21 CFR 200.10(b)].
FDA strongly recommends that if you decide to resume production of sterile drugs, your management first undertake a comprehensive assessment of operations, including facility design, procedures, personnel, processes, maintenance, materials, and systems. In particular, this review should assess your aseptic processing operations. A third-party consultant with relevant sterile drug manufacturing expertise should assist you in conducting this comprehensive evaluation.
E. Conclusion
The violations cited in this letter are not intended to be an all-inclusive statement of violations at your facility. You are responsible for investigating and determining the causes of the violations identified above and for preventing their recurrence or the occurrence of other violations. It is your responsibility to ensure that your firm complies with all requirements of federal law, including FDA regulations.
If you decide to resume sterile operations, you should take prompt action to correct the violations cited in this letter. Failure to promptly correct these violations may result in legal action without further notice, including, without limitation, seizure and injunction.
Within fifteen (15) working days of receipt of this letter, please notify this office in writing if you have taken any specific steps to correct the violations cited in this letter, or you may inform us that you do not intend to resume production of sterile drugs. If you intend to resume production of sterile drugs in the future, please include an explanation of each step being taken to prevent the recurrence of violations, as well as copies of related documentation. If you do not believe that the products discussed above violated the FDCA, include your reasoning and any supporting information for our consideration.
In addition to taking appropriate corrective actions, you should notify this office fifteen (15) days prior to resuming production of any sterile drugs in the future.
Please send your electronic reply to ORAPHARM4_Responses@FDA.HHS.GOV or mail your reply to:
CDR Steven E. Porter, Jr.
Director, Division of Pharmaceutical Quality Operations IV
U.S. Food & Drug Administration
19701 Fairchild Road
Irvine, California 92612-2506
Please identify your responses with the unique identifier: 610384.
If you have questions regarding the contents of this letter, please contact Andrew Haack, Compliance Officer via email at Andrew.Haack@fda.hhs.gov or telephone at 206-340-8212.
Sincerely,
/S/
CAPT Katherine E. Jacobitz
Acting Director, Division of Pharmaceutical Quality Operations IV
_______________________
1 We remind you that there are conditions other than those discussed in this letter that must be satisfied to qualify for the exemptions in section 503A of the FDCA.
2 Your ineligible drug products are not exempted from the requirements of section 502(f)(1) of the FDCA by regulations issued by the FDA (see, e.g., 21 CFR 201.115).
3 In this letter we do not address whether your proposed corrective actions would resolve the CGMP violations noted above.