GMP News - Pharmaceutical Development / Clinical Trials / GCP

The FDA updated the Q&As concerning the conduct of clinical trials during the COVID-19 pandemic. The document provides general considerations to assist sponsors in assuring the safety of trial participants & maintaining GCP compliance. Amongst others the guidance deals with electronic signatures, remote monitoring and re-monitoring after pandemic-related restrictions are lifted.

The FDA has published guidance to clarify how considerations about benefit-risk assessment are integrated into the agency´s pre- and postmarket decisions for marketing applications. Read more about FDA´s draft guidance on Benefit-Risk Assessment for New Drug and Biological Products.

The go-live date for the CTIS is 31 January 2022. The System will then become the single entry point for clinical trial application submission, authorization and supervision in the EU. In order to help sponsors prepare for using the CTIS, the EMA has now published a handbook.

The FDA has published a draft guidance for industry entitled “Bioequivalence Studies With Pharmacokinetic Endpoints for Drugs Submitted Under an ANDA.” The document provides recommendations to applicants planning to include bioequivalence (BE) information in abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) and ANDA supplements. The FDA recommends that in vivo BE studies are accompanied by in vitro dissolution profiles. Under certain circumstances, BE can be evaluated alone by using in vitro approaches (e.g., dissolution testing).

The EMA and the European Commission have agreed to further extend the pilot on signal detection in EudraVigilance by marketing authorization holders until the end of 2022. MAHs with APIs included in the EMA list of active substances and combinations involved in the pilot should continue to monitor them in EudraVigilance.

Scientific advice and recommendations from regulatory authorities are usually of great benefit for specific medicines in the development phase. The principles for this have recently been updated by the U.S. and European regulatory authorities. Read here how parallel scientific advice from the EMA and the FDA works and what benefits it brings to the approval process.

The EMA published the final reflection paper on "Similarity". The paper shows how statistics should be used in drug development when a comparative assessment of quality attributes (QAs) needs to be made for pre- and post-manufacturing changes, biosimilar development as well as generics´ development.