GMP News - Analytical Quality Control

Even with increasing distance to the pandemic situation, manufacturers of disinfectant products still seem to be relying on less stringent controls. After a large number of Warning Letters regarding hand sanitizers with contaminated or poorly analyzed products in the Americas and Southeast Asia, a Turkish company is now affected. The company Sudesan in Istanbul received a Warning Letter from the FDA listing several deviations.

Following the previously issued article on microbial contamination, authors from the FDA recently published an article on elemental impurities in cannabis following vaporization. The results indicate that a transfer of heavy metals from cannabis material to cannabis vapor may not occur during the vaporization process under the applied study conditions.

In December 2023, the U.S. FDA issued a Warning Letter (WL) to the US American company "Inopak, Ltd." after having inspected its site in July and August 2023. According to U.S. FDA Warning Letter, the firm failed to maintain an ongoing stability program for their drug product.

On 29 November 2023, a new FDA Form 483 that goes back to an inspection in October at a company in India was published. The 23-page report lists a total of 10 observations. Beside others, laboratory equipment including HPLCs, GCs, and UV Spectrophotometers used in commercial release and stability analysis were observed not meeting the calibration specifications.

The current version of the EMA/CMDh nitrosamine Q&A document "Questions and answers for marketing authorisation 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", dated October 2023, contains Annex 1 and three further appendices (Appendix 1-3). In December 2023, Appendix 1 was updated and now contains five additional substances.

Observations made by the inspector during an FDA inspection are listed on the FDA Form 483. The FDA has now published the data for the fiscal year 2023. As in previous years, we have again performed an evaluation with regard to deficiencies in the stability programme.

Following the previously pre-published Ph. Eur. Cannabis Flower Monograph and the announced Ph. Eur. CBD Monograph, four new Ph. Eur. cannabis reagents are needed for quality control purposes. The description of these Cannabis reagents will be published in the European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur.) Supplement 11.5.