GMP NEWS 2018

As a result of repeated deviations in the area of aseptic manufacturing, a Korean manufacturer has received a Warning Letter from the FDA.

The Ph. Eur. Commission decided to restructure Ph. Eur. Section 3 on materials and containers. A new Subsection 3.3. has been added to cover items that are classified as medical devices according to EU legislation. Read more about 3.3. Containers for human blood and blood components, and materials used in their manufacture; transfusion sets and materials used in their manufacture; syringes.

The Code of Practice "The Responsible Person for GDP" has been revised. The new Version 2 has just beed issued for members of the European GDP Association.

A new ICH topic was endorsed by the ICH Management Committee in November 2018. Read more about the proposed new ICH M11 guideline Clinical electronic Structured Harmonized Protocol (CeSHarP).

On the MHRA Inspectorate blog a new post has just been published emphasizing that according to GCP dose escalation practices should be the same regardless of whether a clinical trial involves healthy volunteers or patients. Read more about "Dose Escalation - is it GCP compliant?"

The Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme as international association of pharmaceutical inspectors is currently elaborating a document on data integrity. This document was published for comment on 30 November 2018. Among others, the ECA Foundation has been given the opportunity by the PICS to comment on this third draft by 28 February 2019. Read more about the new draft 3 of PI 041-1 "Good Practices for Data Management and Data Integrity in regulated GMP/GDP Environments".

Again and again, the question arises as to whether a bracketing approach - i.e. selective skipping of individuals tests - may be used for the qualification of identical pieces of equipment. Can the answer to the question whether or not to skip individual tests be found in Part IV of the EU GMP Guide?

Following the committee meeting at the end of September 2018, the PIC/S working group had elaborated a new guideline on the classification of GMP deficiencies which is going to be adopted.

The first inspection of an Indian pharmaceutical company ended with the worst imaginable result. Read more about the GMP violations found by the European inspectors with regard to documentation management, cleaning and process validation, as well as further violations of GMP basic requirements.