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As referred to in the European Pharmacopoeia, the procedure for terminal sterilisation of a medicinal product, an API, or an excipient is generally the method of choice. Yet, this might be difficult in many cases for product stability reasons. That's why other microbial reduction processes can be used like sterilising filtration or aseptic processing. So far, there has been some uncertainty about these methods and their acceptance in a marketing authorisation procedure or a variation application, and about which data have to be submitted.
EMA's new draft guideline entitled "Guideline on the sterilisation of the medicinal product, active substance, excipient and primary container" from April 2016 contains clear provisions with regard to the acceptance of alternative sterilisation processes by the European authorisation authorities. Those provisions apply to chemical and biological medicinal products for human and veterinary use as well as the respective APIs and excipients, but aren't applicable for immunological veterinary medicinal products.
The document describes the requirements on sterilisation of medicinal products, APIs, excipients and primary containers, as well as on the choice of the method of sterilisation. Besides, the document contains two decision trees for the selection of the sterilisation method for products in diverse galenic forms.
Please find hereafter a summary of most important aspects in this chapter:
Manufacturing of sterile medicinal products
The conditions and physical parameters for the following processes are described in detail:
Basically, the following rules apply to all processes:
Manufacturing of sterile APIs and excipients
The document clarifies that the requirements laid down in Part II of the EU GMP Guide are only applicable for the manufacture beginning with the starting material up to the finished API, immediately prior to sterilisation. The sterilisation step performed on the API is considered to be a step in the manufacture of the medicinal product. As a consequence, each manufacturing establishment which performs sterilisation of an API requires a manufacturing authorisation, a GMP certificate and thus a Qualified Person too. This also applies to establishments which manufacture sterile excipients. APIs and excipients with a Certificate of Suitability (CEP) are also covered by this regulation.
Selection of the sterilisation method
The following principles apply:
In general, the regulatory authorities will expect a detailed justification for the selection of the sterilisation method or the aseptic processing in the form of a benefit/risk analysis.
The essence of the requirements described in the chapters of this guideline can be found in the two decision trees for sterilisation of products in diverse administration forms (aqueous liquid; non-aqueous liquid, semi-solid, dry powder).
The deadline for comments on this Draft Guideline Sterilisation of the medicinal product, active substance, excipient and primary container ends on October, 13th 2016.