GMP News - Aseptic / Microbiology

In May, the FDA published a Warning Letter to a US American sterile manufacturer of ophthalmic drugs which highlights serious deficiencies, especially in sterile production and in the general understanding of GMP. Read more here.

Due to the deficiencies discovered during an inspection performed in July 2018, the US FDA has now issued a Warning Letter to a US pharmaceutical manufacturer of homeopathic drug products. Microbiological impurities in the products and the water used to manufacture the medicinal products are an essential aspect of the complaint.

The most common method of preventing microbiological contamination in a water system is thermal sanitisation. There are systems in which the pharmaceutical water is stored hot and systems that are heated cyclically to an elevated, germicidal temperature. However, excessive temperatures not only increase costs, they can also damage the materials. Read more here.

The European Commission and the EDQM have published a new chapter of the European Pharmacopoeia for testing bacterial endotoxins with recombinant factor C (rFC) for public comment.

In January 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published a draft guideline dealing specifically with the GMP requirements for the manufacture of radiopharmaceuticals.

Decontamination by means of vapour hydrogen peroxide is a well established procedure for isolators. Now, the question is what the expectations of the British Authority MHRA are with regard to sterilisation of direct and indirect contact parts in isolators. Andrew Hopkins - among others chairperson of the working group for the revision of Annex 1 - published his opinion on that.

On the basis of a GMP inspection performed at an Italian sterile manufacturer, the Italian authority (AIFA) recommended the recall of batches and issued a GMP non-compliance report. Read more about the GMP deficiencies observed.