GMP News

With the approvals of various COVID-19 vaccines in many countries, the question arises how to safely transport the serum from the production sites to the storage and distribution centres and then on to the local vaccination centres. However, this question does not only arise for COVID-19 vaccines, but also any other temperature-sensitive product in general. The EU GDP-Guidelines contain some specific requirements for temperature-sensitive products in this regard.

The "Q&A" documents for centralised procedures were revised and published on the EMA website in January. In general, pre- and post-approval advices regarding centralised procedures are given and specially information for applicants of generic or hybrid medicinal products is mentioned. 

Since 2005, the ICH Guideline Q9 has been the state of the art when it comes to quality risk management (QRM) in the GMP environment. Now it is to be revised. What is planned?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently sent a warning letter to a US over-the-counter (OTC) drug manufacturer due to significant violations of current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) regulations for finished pharmaceuticals.

Since the beginning of the pandemic and the associated travel restrictions, the FDA has been hesitant to decide whether to conduct distant assessments. Now, more and more criticism is spreading.

The Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products Swissmedic has published a press release clarifying the validity of GMP certificates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The United Nations (UN) Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) has decided to reclassify cannabis. With this, the Commission followed the WHO recommendation of 2019.

What influence can process changes have on process validation? A current FDA Warning Letter provides information on this.

A look at the warning letters to pharmaceutical companies of the last nine months of the current fiscal year (Oct. 2019 - June 2020) shows the most frequent GMP violations found by FDA inspectors. Read more about the Warning Letter Analysis in this article of the GMP Journal

During  2020, the FDA updated and expanded its series of guidelines on the topic of cell and tissue products with a revised version of the Guideline Regulatory Considerations for Human Cells, Tissues, and Cellular and Tissue-Based Products: Minimal Manipulation and Homologous Use.

Recently, the FDA published a Q&A Paper on their website that answers the most common questions about the emergency approval of COVID-19 vaccines and explains the underlying process.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a Warning Letter to a Mexican manufacturer. According to the FDA, the firm did not adequately validate the process and qualify the equipment used to manufacture the drug products. Furthermore, the company did not adequately test components prior to use in the manufacture of drug products destined for the US market.