Ozonization of Pharmaceutical Water and the Biocidal Products Regulation

With the new biocidal products regulation from 2013 in-situ generated ozone now also falls into the scope of this regulation. Ozone generation systems with a biocide application (such as disinfection of pharma water) thus require an approval after the transitional period expires in the September 2017. We already reported about the impact of the new Biocidal Products Regulation - please see the GMP News "Pharmaceutical Water: Uncertainty caused by the New Biocidal Products Regulation" from 21 May 2014.

Admission will take place in two stages. In the first step, ozone is certified as an active ingredient and registered in the list of active substances authorised in the EU. In the second step, the ozone generation system is approved as a biocidal product. The major manufacturers of ozone generation systems have joined forces for this in the ozone registration group (ORG). It aims at relieving users of ozone systems from the registration procedure. That means the documents should be provided to the users. The access to the marketing authorisation dossier is supposed to be assured through a Letter of Access (LoA). One of the open questions seems to be resolved now: the question whether an authorisation document will be required for each ozone precurser (i.e. water, oxygen or air). As this seems to be unnecessary, only one authorisation document is currently being processed.

The question with regard to how reasonable it is to include ozone from pharmaceutical water systems in the biocidal products regulation cannot be clarified at this point. The same is true with regard to the question on who is supposed to control pharmaceutical companies and whether their ozone comes from approved ozone systems.

You can find more information on the page Ozone registration group.