GMP News - Quality Assurance

With ICH Q9 Quality Risk Management becoming effective, risk analyses have become the "magic word" in the GMP environment. But risk analyses do not always help. An example of this can be found in an FDA Warning Letter on the subject of cross-contamination.

In December 2022, the "Questions & Answers (Q&A)" documents relating to centralised marketing authorisation procedures were again revised and published on the website of the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The Q&A catalogues, which can be used by marketing authorisation holders and applicants of centralised procedures, provide answers to possible questions at the different stages of the centralised marketing authorisation application process.

The FDA has signed a Mutual Recognition Agreement on GMP inspections with Switzerland. It applies to both human and veterinary medicinal products.

Following the entry into application of the CTR at the beginning of last year, the final version of the "Guideline on the responsibilities of the sponsor with regard to handling and shipping of IMPs" has been published. IMPs may not be used in a clinical trial in a member state of the European Union until the completion of the two-step procedure referred to in this guideline.

In November 2022, the U.S. FDA issued a Warning Letter to the U.S. American company Kari Gran Inc. after having inspected its site in July 2022. The Warning Letter mentions the list of cGMP observations for finished products.

The Danish Medicines Agency has revised its guidelines on the requirements and expectations of the QP. In places, these deviate from the requirements of Directive 2001/83/EC, especially with regard to education and experience.

There has been a recent accumulation of Warning Letters from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to manufactures of hand sanitizer products. At the end of November, a further letter was published. In this case, FDA laboratory analyses showed that the ethanol content of several batches was too low. In addition, the FDA has also found numerous GMP violations. There was already a lack of the necessary basic SOPs.