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FDA Schedules Public Meeting to Discuss NARMS

March 21, 2007 — 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a public meeting to discuss the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS).

The Science Board to the FDA (Science Board) National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) Program subcommittee will convene a meeting on April 10, 2007, beginning at 9:00 a.m. at the Hilton Washington DC/Rockville Executive Meeting Center (formerly the DoubleTree Hotel), 1750 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The purpose of the subcommittee will be evaluation of the NARMS program and addressing four questions relevant to the continued success of the program including:

  1. Are there inherent biases in the sampling strategies employed in NARMS? If so, how can they be improved to ensure that the data and interpretation are scientifically sound given current resources?
  2. Are there epidemiological and/or microbiological research studies that would better serve the goals of NARMS and the regulatory work of FDA?
    3. Are current plans for data harmonization and reporting appropriate? If not, what are the top priorities for advancing harmonized reporting?
  3. Are the current NARMS international activities adequate to address the worldwide spread of antimicrobial-resistant foodborne bacteria?

The subcommittee will discuss and hear comments on the NARMS Program, including oral presentations from the public on scope, strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. The subcommittee will provide advice to the Science Board, including information obtained from this public meeting.

Requests to make an oral presentation at the meeting must be submitted by March 28, 2007, to Carlos Pena, Office of Science and Health Coordination, Office of the Commissioner (HF-33), Food and Drug Administration, 5600 Fishers Lane, (for express delivery, rm. 14B-08) Rockville, MD 20857, 301-827-3340, e-mail: Carlos.Pena@fda.hhs.gov. Please include a brief statement of the general nature of the evidence or arguments to present, the names and addresses of proposed participants, and an indication of the approximate time requested to make the presentation.

Registration requests to attend the meeting should be submitted no later than one day in advance of the meeting, or April 9, 2007. Additional information is available on the FDA web site.