Updates to the EMA Q&A Documents on Centralised Procedures
In April 2023, the Questions & Answers documents related to centralised marketing authorisation procedures were revised and published on the European Medicines Agency (EMA) website. The Q&As, which can be used by marketing authorisation holders and applicants of centralised procedures, provide answers to potential questions at different stages of the centralised marketing authorisation application process.
FDA Form 483 due to Insufficient Investigations after OOS and OOT Results
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published a Form 483. During an inspection at an Indian drug manufacturing side, several CGMP violations were documented. These concerns, among others, Out-of-Specification (OOS) and Out-of-Trend (OOT) investigations, where results were invalidated by retesting the batches without a scientifically justified root cause.
In March 2023, the ECA offered the Live Online Training "How to register APIs in Brazil". With regard to Brazil's Registration procedures for APIs, a set of the most important questions raised during the training and the respective answers provided by the speakers Ms Marieke van Dalen, Global Regulatory Specialist, Aspen, The Netherlands, and Ms Susan Swiggers, Customer & Regulatory Support Officer, Aspen, The Netherlands, are listed in the following.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has published on its website the detailed minutes of the Herbal Medicinal Products Committee (HMPC) meeting from 13-15 March 2023. In the meeting, the HMPC discussed some issues known to cause difficulties in procedures and ideally to be addressed during the current GACP revision.
The first version of the "Sharing Drug Substance M7 information to HA and MAH: "How to do" document -Interpretation of the ICH M7 guideline and other relevant guidelines with regard to M7 data sharing" and the associated templates were finalised in March and April 2023 and are now available on the APIC website.
Medical Cannabis in Germany: From the BtMG to the Cannabis Act?
According to a draft version for the German Cannabis Law (Cannabisgesetz, CannG), cannabis for medical purposes will no longer fall within the scope of the Narcotics Law (Betäubungsmittelgesetz, BtMG). What changes may result?
Draft of USP Chapter <711> Dissolution (PDG harmonized document) Published for Comments
In the Pharmacopeial Forum, PF 49(3), a proposal of a revised USP General Chapter <711> Dissolution has been published for comments. The background to the publication is the efforts of international harmonization of monographs and general analytical methods of the European, Japanese, and United States pharmacopeias. The new draft represents the Pharmacopeial Discussion Group (PDG) harmonized document.
USP Publishes Draft on Quality Requirements for Cannabis
The USP previously announced to elaborate a chapter on quality considerations for Cannabis. Now the draft chapter <1568> Quality Considerations for Cannabis and Cannabis-Derived Products for Clinical Research has been published in PF 49.3. Comments can be sent to the USP until end of July.
In February and April 2023, the "IRIS guide to registration and RPIs" was updated again and is now valid as version 2.13. Like the "IRIS guide for applicants" and "IRIS guide to parallel distribution applicants", the latest versions of this document are available on the EMA website.
The CMDh (Co-ordination Group for Mutual Recognition and Decentralised Procedures - Human) updated the Q&A document on "Renewals" in March 2023 and published it on the HMA (Heads of Medicines Agencies) website in the CMDh - Questions & Answers section in April.
FDA Warning Letter: Root Cause of Benzene Contamination not unterstood
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently published a new Warning Letter. An OTC manufacturer received information indicating that the finished drug products produced with isobutane propellants were contaminated with benzene. The company's own analyses as well as results of the FDA laboratory testing confirmed the presence of this impurity. The company failed to perform adequate investigations and so far, the root cause of the benzene contamination is not understood.
In March 2023, the EDQM once more prepared its "CERTIFICATION MONTHLY REPORT" on the topic of "CEPs" and has now published it in the newsroom of the EDQM website.