GMP News

FDA Warning Letter to Drug Manufacturing Facility in Thailand

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a Warning Letter to a drug manufacturing facility in Thailand. The violations include failure to conduct appropriate laboratory testing for identity and strength of active ingredients prior to release and distribution.

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EMA/CMDh: Appendix 1 for Nitrosamines Updated Again

The nitrosamine Q&A document "Questions and answers for marketing authorization holders/applicants on the CHMP Opinion for the Article 5(3) of Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 referral on nitrosamine impurities in human medicinal products" of the EMA/CMDh contains three annexes (Appendix 1-3) in its current version of October 2023. In February 2024, Appendix 1 was updated again and fifteen new substances were added.

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Air-Tightness of Cleanrooms & Containment Solutions: VDI 2083 Part 19 Updated

The question of how tight the cleanrooms must be needs to be answered as early as the planning phase of a facility. The DIN EN 15727 standard and the new version of VDI Guideline VDI 2083 Sheet 19 provide assistance. Read more here.

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New USP Chapter on Cured Silicone Components

The final text for USP <383> Cured Silicone Elastomers for Pharmaceutical Packaging and Manufacturing Components has been published in the USP. The chapter will become official on 1 December 2027. Early adoption of the requirements in this chapter is permitted by USP.

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EMA/FDA joint Q&As on Quality and GMP aspects of Breakthrough Therapy Applications

The FDA and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) published "EMA–FDA joint Q&As on Quality and GMP aspects" supporting quality development for FDA’s Breakthrough Therapy (BT) and EMA's Priority Medicines (PRIME) programs.

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Where to find GDP Certificates and Wholesale Distributor Authorisations

The wholesale distribution of medicinal products requires a Wholesale Distribution Authorisation (WDA). But where actually to find reliable information on whether a particular company is in possession of such an authorisation or GDP certificate? Depending on the location of the company in question, certain databases are available for searching.

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Checklist for Implementation of GDP Principles - Part 5: Operations

According to Chapter 5 of the EU GDP Guidelines, all actions taken by wholesale distributors should ensure that the identity of the medicinal product is not lost and that the wholesale distribution of medicinal products is performed according to the information on the outer packaging. The wholesale distributor should use all means available to minimise the risk of falsified medicinal products entering the legal supply chain. In this article, you will find a checklist to verify the minimum implementation.

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Improving Registration and Reporting Summary Results Information for Clinical Trials

The FDA is announcing a newly published report on the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI) prepared on the findings of a collaborative project with FDA to understand the barriers to timely, accurate and complete registration and reporting of summary results information for clinical trials. According to the report, the major challenge was a lack of understanding on the part of the Responsible Party regarding the types of trials that must be registered, when the trial should be registered and when and for which trials summary results information must be submitted.

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Master Protocols for Drug and Biological Product Development

A new FDA guidance provides recommendations on the design and analysis of trials conducted under a master protocol as well as guidance on the submission of documentation to support regulatory review. Commenting on the proposed guideline was open until 22 February 2024.

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Swissmedic publishes Technical Interpretation on Shipment under Quarantine

Swissmedic, the Swiss national authorisation and supervisory authority for drugs and medical products, has published a new document on "Shipment under Quarantine". It clarifies some situations in which a shipment under quarantine of active substances, intermediate drug products and finished drug products would be acceptable to inspectors.

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APIs in Brazil: how to register and obtain the GMP certificate

In February 2024, the ECA offered the Live Online Training "How to register APIs in Brazil - Focus on CADIFA and obtaining a Brazilian GMP certificate". During the Q&A sessions, many interesting questions were posed to the speakers' team. A list of useful abbreviations and definitions in regard on the Brazilian registration system are collected and provided in the following.

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EDQM: Top Ten Deficiencies for CEPs

In February 2024, the EDQM has published its summary of the top ten deficiencies which occurred during the evaluations of the CEPs in 2023. This document called "TOP TEN DEFICIENCIES in New Applications for Certificates of Suitability for chemical purity" should help applicants to avoid such deficiencies in future and lists in detail the findings and its respective sections.

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FDA publishes Q2(R2) and Q14 Guidelines

After the ICH and the EMA had already made the documents available for download in December and January respectively, the FDA has now announced the availability of the final guidances for the industry entitled "Q2(R2) Validation of Analytical Procedures" and "Q14 Analytical Procedure Development."

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FDA Warning Letter Defines Minimum Criteria for Process Validation

In addition to 21 CFR 210/211 and the related Guides to Inspection of as well as Guidelines/Guidances for Industry, Warning Letters are another way of interpreting the US cGMP regulations. Read more here about FDA's response to a pharmaceutical manufacturer's reference to not being aware of the need to perform process validation.

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How does GMP apply for Herbal Medicinal Products?

The EMA published revised Questions & Answers on the EU framework for (traditional) herbal medicinal products, including those from a “non-European” tradition. Amongst others two new interesting questions with corresponding answers regarding GACP and GMP have been introduced.

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Is it Acceptable to Mix Extract-Batches in order to Improve Batch-to-Batch Consistency?

A revision of the "Questions & answers on quality of herbal medicinal products/traditional herbal medicinal products" document was published on the website of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on 1 February 2024.

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EMA/CHMP/CVMP: New Q&A document for the Use of CEPs

In the middle of February, the document "QWP Questions and Answers (Q&A): how to use a CEP in the context of a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) or a Marketing Authorization Variation (MAV)" prepared by the EMA, the CHMP (Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use) and the CVMP (Committee for Medicinal Products for Veterinary use) was published on the EMA website for the first time.

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Non-compliance Report (EudraGMDP): Cross-Contamination Risk at Indian pharmaceutical Company

A non-compliance report was issued by the inspecting Maltese authority following an inspection at an Indian pharmaceutical manufacturer. The inspection was the follow-up inspection to an inspection already carried out in 2022, which was intended to monitor the implementation of the measures. According to the authority, the remaining deficiencies and risks of cross-contamination were problematic.

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FDA Warning Letter on misbranded and unapproved Drugs

Due to ignorance of the FDA definition of drugs, a US pharmaceutical company has received a Warning Letter regarding their products.

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New Regulation on Blood, Blood Products and Plasma

News on the Regulation on standards of quality and safety of substances of human origin (SoHO). The regulation are intended to help ensure that the donation and processing of blood, blood products and plasma reflect the latest legal, political and scientific standards.

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EMA and FDA publish Q&A Document on their accelerated Approval Programmes

In December, the EMA and U.S. FDA published a joint Q&A document on accelerated approval of important innovative medicines and therapies entitled: "EMA-FDA joint Q&As on Quality and GMP aspects of PRIME/Breakthrough therapy applications".

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FDA Draft Guidance on Potency Assays for Cellular and Gene Therapy Products

At the end of December, the FDA published a new draft guidance document on potency assays for Cell and Gentherapeutics. In addition to recommendations for potency testing, this guidance is also intended to help with the overall strategy for ensuring potency.

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What is an FDA Post-Warning Letter Meeting?

When reading an FDA Warning Letter, you might have recognised that under GDUFA programme, the facility may be eligible for a so-called Post-Warning Letter Meeting. But what is this?

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Pest Control - Warning Letter to US Company

Even animals with legs can keep the regulatory authorities busy. In December, a US manufacturer received a Warning Letter, the first section of which deals with deficiencies in the area of pest control.

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FDA Warning Letter: Data Integrity issues while manufacturing APIs

In February 2024, the U.S. FDA issued a Warning Letter to the Chinese company "Sichuan Deebio Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd." after having inspected its site in September 2023. According to the Warning Letter the firm has a lack of microbiology laboratory Data Integrity.

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