16/17 May 2023
When confronted with critical violations of GMP requirements, the FDA issues a warning letter to the company involved. Said company then has 15 days time to provide the FDA with a corrective action plan.
Between December 14th, 2015 and January 15th, 2016, the FDA inspected US manufacturer Aplicare Inc. in Meriden. During that time, the inspectors came across several severe, partly recurring GMP violations. When the company could not offer a sufficient response to the list of deficiencies, the FDA issued a warning letter on December 15th, 2016, which focussed on four main points. The FDA refers the deficiencies in its warning letter to the corresponding paragraphs of 21 CFR Part 211.
This article describes recurring issues with the environmental monitoring.
1. "Your firm failed to have separate or defined areas or such other control systems necessary to prevent contamination or mix-ups - 21 CFR 211.42(c)"
The FDA criticises the inadequate extent to which the microbiological environment had been monitored; it doesn't provide insight on the expectations of the inspectors, however. It was also criticised that during environmental monitoring, spore-forming Bacillus species had been isolated on more than one occasion.
The manufacturer's response, to revise their monitoring program, was deemed insufficient for the following reasons:
Furthermore, the company is to establish a monitoring program to determine the bioburden before sterilisation. Adequate alarm and action limits are to be established in order to identify insufficient environmental conditions and commence corrective actions.
In response to the warning letter, the manufacturer is to provide a revised procedure for environmental monitoring, including the following items:
Source: Warning letter to Aplicare Inc. from December 15th, 2016