CDER Program for the Recognition of Voluntary Consensus Standards Related to Pharmaceutical Quality (CDER Quality Standards Program)

What is the CDER Quality Standards Program? This program, established by publication of the final guidance for industry titled, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research’s Program for the Recognition of Voluntary Consensus Standards Related to Pharmaceutical Quality, helps external stakeholders and FDA staff submit voluntary consensus standards related to pharmaceutical quality to CDER for potential recognition. This program is intended for all drugs, including brand, generics, biologics, biosimilars, and over-the-counter drugs. It will help create efficiencies in generic and biosimilar manufacturing which is an important part of streamlining generic and biosimilar development and spurring competition as part of our Drug Competition Action Plan (DCAP) and Biosimilars Action Plan. This program allows CDER to communicate to external stakeholders that FDA experts have evaluated a consensus standard and determined that the standard is potentially useful to industry and FDA staff. The program also provides transparency to industry regarding CDER’s thinking about a certain method or approach. Recognized Standards Submitting a Request for Recognition Access the CDER Quality Standards Program Submission Portal here. Requestors will need the following information to prepare a recognition request: Name and contact information of the requestor Full title of the published standard, including the name of the organization that developed the standard and any reference number and date Brief identification of the testing or performance or other characteristics of the drug(s) or manufacturing process(es) that would be addressed by the recognition of the standard, and the applicability of the standard to pharmaceutical development, establishing quality criteria, and/or regulatory assessment Contact Us Specific questions about the CDER program: CDER Compendial Operations and Standards Staff CDERStandardsCoordinationRequest@fda.hhs.gov