Survey Results: Fees Charged by Suppliers for the Opportunity to Conduct cGMP Audits

The survey was closed on May 18, 2009, and the results are summarized below in a PDF file and the raw data is in a Microsoft Excel File. 

The response rate to the first Rx-360 survey, Supplier Requested Fees for the Opportunity to Conduct an On-site Audit”, was excellent with a 50% response rate.  Of the respondents, 44% represented pharmaceutical firms, 29% biotech firms, 13% suppliers, 4% auditing firms, 3% consultants, 2% generic firms and 3% other.  

There are some interesting data that can be ascertained from the survey:

ü    In the past 12 months, about 44% of the respondents were asked to pay a fee to a supplier for conducting an on-site audit. 

ü    Of these firms only 45% agreed to pay the requested fee.  It is also interesting to note that 75% of the suppliers who responded would not agree to pay a fee for conducting an on-site audit. 

ü    The vast majority of respondents (77.5%) would not agree to pay a fee for the opportunity to conduct an on-site audit, but when asked if they would entertain a supplier requested fee if the business with a supplier was modest, recognizing the burden created for a supplier for very little business, that number dropped significantly to 41.5%. 

ü    A significant number of respondents (34.8%) would agree to pay a supplier requested fee for an on-site audit, if their annual business with the supplier is less than $20,000.

ü   The majority of respondents (56%) feel that more suppliers are requesting fees for the opportunity to conduct on-site supplier audits, but that the practice of requesting a fee is still rare.  When asked, 55% of respondents said they feel that less than 5% of their suppliers are requesting a fee for on-site audits.