2011-24582. Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for Office of Management and Budget Review; Comment Request; Requests for Inspection Under the Inspection by Accredited Persons Program

AGENCY:

Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing that a proposed collection of information has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES:

Fax written comments on the collection of information by October 26, 2011.

ADDRESSES:

To ensure that comments on the information collection are received, OMB recommends that written comments be faxed to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, Attn: FDA Desk Officer, Fax: [phone], or e-mailed to [e-mail]. All comments should be identified with the OMB control number 0910-0569. Also include the FDA docket number found in brackets in the heading of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Daniel Gittleson, Office of Information Management, Food and Drug Administration, 1350 Piccard Dr., PI50-400B, Rockville, MD 20850, 301-796-5156, [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

In compliance with 44 U.S.C. 3507, FDA has submitted the following proposed collection of information to OMB for review and clearance.

Requests for Inspection Under the Inspection by Accredited Persons Program—(OMB Control Number 0910-0569)—(Extension)

Section 201 of the Medical Device User Fee and Modernization Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107-250) amended section 704 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by adding subsection (g) (21 U.S.C. 374(g)). This amendment authorized FDA to establish a voluntary third-party inspection program applicable to manufacturers of class II or class III medical devices who meet certain eligibility criteria. In 2007, the program was modified by the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 by revising eligibility criteria and by no longer requiring prior approval by FDA. To reflect the revisions, FDA modified the title of the collection of information and on March 2, 2009, issued a guidance entitled “Manufacturer's Notification of the Intent to Use an Accredited Person Under the Accredited Persons Inspection Program Authorized by Section 228 of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007.” This guidance supersedes the Agency's previous guidance regarding requests for third-party inspection and may be found on the Internet at http://www.fda.gov/​MedicalDevices/​DeviceRegulationandGuidance/​GuidanceDocuments/​ucm085187.htm. This guidance is intended to assist device establishments in determining whether they are eligible to participate in the Accredited Persons (AP) Program and, if so, how to submit notification of their intent to use the program. The AP Program applies to manufacturers who currently market their medical devices in the United States and who also market or plan to market their devices in foreign countries. Such manufacturers may need current inspections of their establishments to operate in global commerce.

There are approximately 8,000 foreign and 10,000 domestic manufacturers of medical devices. Approximately 5,000 of these firms only manufacture class I devices and are, therefore, not eligible for the AP Program. In addition, 40 percent of the domestic firms do not export devices and therefore are not eligible to participate in the AP Program. Further, 10 to 15 percent of the firms are not eligible due to the results of their previous inspection. FDA estimates there are 4,000 domestic manufacturers and 4,000 foreign manufacturers that are eligible for inclusion under the AP Program. Based on communications with industry, FDA estimates that on an annual basis approximately 100 of these manufacturers may use an AP in any given year.

In the Federal Register of May 23, 2011 (76 FR 29764), FDA published a 60-day notice requesting public comment on the proposed collection of information. No comments were received.

FDA estimates the burden of this collection of information as follows:

Table 1—Estimated Annual Reporting Burden ¹

21 U.S.C. section	Number of respondents	Number of responses per respondent	Total annual responses	Average burden per response	Total hours
374(g)	100	1	100	15	1,500
1 There are no capital costs or operating and maintenance costs associated with this collection of information.

Dated: September 20, 2011.

Leslie Kux,

Acting Assistant Commissioner for Policy.