FDA Warning Letter to Drug Manufacturing Facility in Thailand
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a Warning Letter to a drug manufacturing facility in Thailand. The violations include failure to conduct appropriate laboratory testing for identity and strength of active ingredients prior to release and distribution.
EMA/CMDh: Appendix 1 for Nitrosamines Updated Again
The nitrosamine Q&A document "Questions and answers for marketing authorization 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" of the EMA/CMDh contains three annexes (Appendix 1-3) in its current version of October 2023. In February 2024, Appendix 1 was updated again and fifteen new substances were added.
APIs in Brazil: how to register and obtain the GMP certificate
In February 2024, the ECA offered the Live Online Training "How to register APIs in Brazil - Focus on CADIFA and obtaining a Brazilian GMP certificate". During the Q&A sessions, many interesting questions were posed to the speakers' team. A list of useful abbreviations and definitions in regard on the Brazilian registration system are collected and provided in the following.
In February 2024, the EDQM has published its summary of the top ten deficiencies which occurred during the evaluations of the CEPs in 2023. This document called "TOP TEN DEFICIENCIES in New Applications for Certificates of Suitability for chemical purity" should help applicants to avoid such deficiencies in future and lists in detail the findings and its respective sections.
The EMA published revised Questions & Answers on the EU framework for (traditional) herbal medicinal products, including those from a “non-European” tradition. Amongst others two new interesting questions with corresponding answers regarding GACP and GMP have been introduced.
Is it Acceptable to Mix Extract-Batches in order to Improve Batch-to-Batch Consistency?
A revision of the "Questions & answers on quality of herbal medicinal products/traditional herbal medicinal products" document was published on the website of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on 1 February 2024.
EMA/CHMP/CVMP: New Q&A document for the Use of CEPs
In the middle of February, the document "QWP Questions and Answers (Q&A): how to use a CEP in the context of a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) or a Marketing Authorization Variation (MAV)" prepared by the EMA, the CHMP (Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use) and the CVMP (Committee for Medicinal Products for Veterinary use) was published on the EMA website for the first time.
FDA Warning Letter: Data Integrity issues while manufacturing APIs
In February 2024, the U.S. FDA issued a Warning Letter to the Chinese company "Sichuan Deebio Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd." after having inspected its site in September 2023. According to the Warning Letter the firm has a lack of microbiology laboratory Data Integrity.
Another FDA Warning Letter for Chinese Company based on Review of Records
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued another Warning Letter to a Chinese manufacturer regarding significant violations of cGMP regulations for finished pharmaceuticals, based on a review of records.
EMA/HMA/ECA: List of Active Substances defined to prevent supply bottlenecks
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.
Swissmedic's nitrosamine Q&A document "Update of the requirements for dealing with nitrosamine impurities in medicinal products" was updated in January 2024 and is now available in the new version on the Swissmedic website.
FDA Warning Letter: Observed particulates in repackaged drug components
In January 2024, the U.S. FDA issued a Warning Letter (WL) to the Mexican company "Glicerinas Industriales, S.A. de C.V." after having inspected its site in May 2023. According to U.S. FDA Warning Letter, the firm failed to do adequate investigations on observed contamination of particles in numerous packaged drugs.
FDA Warning Letter for Chinese Company based on Review of Records
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a Warning Letter to a Chinese manufacturer regarding significant violations of cGMP regulations for finished pharmaceuticals. The firm failed to conduct proper analytical testing of incoming API lots and relied solely on supplier COAs without verifying the information. Additionally, there was a lack of documentation for the stability program.
VICH: Guideline for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients in Veterinary Medicinal Products
The draft guideline "Good Manufacturing Practice for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Used in Veterinary Medicinal Products - VICH GL 60" of the VICH can still be commented on until the end of March 2024. Comments can be submitted via the U.S. FDA website, for example.
EMA: Further Update of the Q&A Documents on "Centralised Procedures"
In December 2023, the Questions & Answers (Q&A) documents related to centralised procedures were revised again and published on the European Medicines Agency (EMA) website. The list of Q&As, which can be used by marketing authorisation holders and applicants for centralised procedures, provide answers to any questions that may arise at different stages of the centralised marketing authorisation application.