GMP News - Validation

End of May, another new part under the heading "GMP Flexibilites" was added to the Questions & Answers document prepared by the EC, the CMDh, the Inspectors Working Group and the EMA. This new part now includes special features for the qualification of equipment (question 6.2).

In order to be able to continue to provide the population with high-quality, effective and safe medicinal products during the Covid-19 pandemic, Europe is taking exceptional measures. A Q&A document has been prepared in cooperation between the European Commission, the Coordination Group on Mutually Recognised and Decentralised Procedures (CMDh), the Inspectors Working Group and the European Medicines Agency (EMA). At the end of May, special features for process validation (question 6.2) were added under the heading "GMP Flexibilites".

Is there a specific FDA requirement for a Design Qualification? The answer is (actually) No.

The modification and deletion of electronic data must be documented by an audit trail. A missing audit trail led to a Warning Letter to the Indian company Shriram Institute for Industrial Research.

In the context of process validation, the FDA attaches considerable importance to a "state of control". The FDA expects evidence of this "state of control" as part of stage 3 "continued process verification" within the validation lifecycle. Now, what exactly does the FDA want to see? Parts of the answer to this question can be found in Warning Letters.

In an interesting Warning Letter, the FDA replies to a letter from a pharmaceutical manufacturer that had received a 483 deficiency report in which the FDA criticized, among other things, deficiencies in process validation. Read more about the correspondence.

The first FDA warning letter of the year goes to a Chinese contract manufacturer of over-the-counter (OTC) drug products for multiple violations of current good manufacturing practice (cGMP).