Good Distribution Practices News

The FDA has issued a questions and answers document to assist industry and State and local governments in understanding the effects of the Uniform National Policy on drug product tracing.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has updated its list of questions and answers on the GMP/GDP guidelines. The newly added chapter deals with the requirements for active substances used as starting materials in veterinary medicinal products. Among other things, it is clarified that the Veterinary Medicines Regulation requires manufacturers and importers of veterinary medicinal products to perform audits based on a risk-assessment on the manufacturers, distributors and importers from whom they source the active substances.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a revised draft guidance entitled Verification Systems Under the Drug Supply Chain Security Act for Certain Prescription Drugs. This document addresses the verification systems that manufacturers, repackagers, wholesale distributors, and dispensers must have in place.

The competent authority of Germany (Bezirksregierung Köln) has entered a new GPD Non-Compliance Report dated 18 January 2022 into the EudraGMDP database.

In this article, we will provide some information and examples of active and passive shipping systems and equipment used for the transport of time and temperature sensitive pharma products.

In order to ensure that medicinal products continue to be marketed with a unique identifier (UI) in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Ireland and Malta, the Commission further extends the temporary derogation from the requirement to decommission UIs of products exported to UK.

Wholesale trade in medicinal products requires a wholesale authorisation. A certificate of Good Distribution Practice (GDP) is issued to a wholesale distributor by the national competent authority. If the outcome of an inspection is that the wholesale Distributor does not comply with Good Distribution Practice, a statement of non-compliance may be entered into EudraGMDP. For your information please see the comprehensive overview of the GDP non-compliance reports entered in 2021 and the respective reasons for issuing them.