GMP News - Pharmaceutical Technology

In March, the American authority FDA issued a Warning Letter to a US pharmaceutical manufacturer due to numerous violations of GMP. Among other things, inadequate cleaning of the equipment, errors in the stability studies as well as in contamination control were found.

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.

In February 2019, the FDA published a new draft guideline that addresses quality aspects of continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing. It covers topics related to development, process validation, marketing authorisation and routine production.

In June 2018 already, the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) announced the coming issuance of a new ICH Guideline on continuous manufacturing. Now, the ICH has released further news about the planned content of the new guideline ICH Q13.

In the course of the revision of the European Pharmacopoeia which allows the production of WFI with other methods than distillation, the revision of EMA's "Guideline on the quality of water for pharmaceutical use" has become necessary.

In the latest edition of the Pharmacopoeial Forum 44(6), the US pharmacopoeia USP has published a so-called Stimuli Article on pharmaceutical continuous manufacturing. Apart from important definitions, the document contains further information on material properties and characteristics as well as risk management approaches for continuous manufacturing.

The European Pharmacopoeia has published a new chapter on testing of parenterals for visible, particulate matter in Pharmeuropa 30.4.