GMP News Drug Safety/Pharmacovigilance

The FDA published a draft guidance on key information in informed consent. Comments are due by 30 April 2024.

At the beginning of April 2024, the draft document "Data Integrity for In Vivo Bioavailability and Bioequivalence Studies" was published on the US FDA website and is now available for comment for 60 days. The document is intended to assist applicants and marketing authorisation holders in the area of data integrity for the clinical and bioanalytical part of bioequivalence and bioavailability studies.

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.

As part of the measurements against supply shortages in the pharmaceutical sector, the first version of the "Union list of critical medicines" and further information on this was published on the EMA website at the end of last year. This list contains more than 200 active substances that are considered critical in the event of a supply shortage and whose shortage must be avoided at all costs.

Following recent cases of microbially contaminated ophthalmic drug products as well as safety recalls, the FDA published a revised draft guidance on Quality Attributes for Ophthalmic Drug Products, to include information about product sterility and preservative use. Moreover the revision clarifies that the guidance applies to all ophthalmic drugs, including over-the-counter (OTC) drugs and combination products.

The FDA issued a final rule to help advance medical product development without compromising the rights, safety and welfare of trial participants. The rule provides an exception from the requirement to obtain informed consent when a clinical trial poses no more than minimal risk to the participants.