Featured Articles

Features

Quality professionals in all industries are heavily involved in root-cause analysis (RCA) and corrective and preventive action (CAPA) management. As artificial intelligence (AI) systems emerge to augment these quality functions, the industry faces a fundamental challenge: no comprehensive regulatory framework exists to govern AI application in GxP environments.

Features

By adopting artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), the life sciences industry can leverage dynamic systems, a completely new system design. These systems feature ML models that learn adaptively automatically from data, accommodating changing relationships between input and output over time.

Technical

The transition from on-premise to cloud-based systems requires a shift in how IT infrastructure is managed in regulated environments. Rather than traditional static qualification, continuous operational control of Platform as a Service (PaaS) infrastructure supporting GxP applications enables life sciences companies to maintain compliance and accelerate innovation.

Technical

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how GxP-regulated areas of life sciences operate. As AI grows ever more capable, people are rethinking humans’ role in an increasingly technology- and data-driven world. With key competencies of AI literacy and data understanding being of paramount importance, strong critical thinking skills become ever more essential for effective oversight.

Technical

This article proposes a practical model for validation in a digital landscape. It incorporates emerging thinking on culture, risk competencies, and modern software assurance approaches for validating computerized systems.

Features

Cell and gene therapies (C&GTs) offer a groundbreaking approach for disease treatment by targeting conditions at the cellular and genetic level, offering hope for previously untreatable disorders. As these therapies progress from clinical trials to commercial reality, manufacturing challenges—particularly the need for robust, scalable, and cost-effective production—remain a significant...

Features

Mold contamination is one of the most persistent threats to cleanroom integrity in pharmaceutical manufacturing. This article highlights the sources, growth conditions, and pathways for mold ingress. It emphasizes the need for an integrated approach combining facility design, environmental monitoring, effective investigation, and robust cleaning and sanitization programs.

Technical

This article presents experiences from seven recent accelerated development program case studies. These experiences provide insights that could help companies progressing through accelerated development programs for products meeting unmet medical needs or significant therapeutic needs, such as those with anticipated Breakthrough Therapy (United States) or PRIME (European Union) designation.

Technical

This article examines the regulatory landscape governing artificial intelligence (AI) in quality-critical systems and distinguishes between algorithms, AI, and a nuanced middle category called smart systems. It explains how organizations can responsibly embrace advanced programmatic solutions while preserving the integrity of validated test methods and safeguarding patient safety.

Technical

Shelf temperature mapping is a critical component of lyophilizer qualification. The previous articles in this series explored the methods used to record the shelf surface temperatures (Part I) and designing an appropriate study (Part II). Interpreting a shelf temperature mapping study’s result is as critical to assessing uniformity as the temperature measurement, the study design, and the...

Technical

The promise of single-use technologies (SUTs) in biopharmaceutical manufacturing is as compelling as it is contradictory. Noted for accelerating process development, enhancing sterility, and enabling unprecedented manufacturing agility, SUTs have also introduced a less visible but mounting challenge: the steady accumulation of complex plastic waste.

Technical

Bulk powders inherently exhibit unpredictable flow in feeders, dosing machines, and packed machines under gravity's pull. Meanwhile, particle engineering co-processed excipients can be more versatile and economical compared to conventional ingredients in the continuous manufacturing of drug products.

Features

In today’s pharmaceutical landscape, speed, compliance, and efficiency are no longer optional—they’re strategic imperatives. Yet for large capital expenditure (CapEx) projects, traditional paper-based commissioning, qualification, and validation (CQV) workflows remain a major bottleneck, consuming time, resources, and patience.

Features
The pharmaceutical industry is at a pivotal moment. The pressure to deliver safe, high-quality medicines to patients faster has never been greater, and the systems used to ensure compliance must evolve to meet that challenge. Commissioning and qualification (C&Q), long the bedrock of pharmaceutical engineering and compliance are being reshaped by new science- and risk-based approaches that...
Features

Radiopharmaceuticals account for many lifesaving diagnostic and therapeutic drug products in the market. These drug products, radioligand therapies (RLTs) in particular, represent a relatively novel modality and present multiple, unique challenges to manufacture, release, ship, and administer.

Features

ASTM E2500, issued in 2007, has been the primary standard guide defining what is required to apply quality risk management (QRM) to achieve the qualification of facilities, systems, and equipment in support of validation and process validation. A major update was undertaken in 2024 to better align the guide with current regulatory and industry guidance and current best practice.

Features

Schedule management faces challenges such as unrealistic deadlines, scope creep, resource constraints, and poor communication, often causing delays and cost overruns. Using tools like an interdependency matrix (IDM) with project management software tools like Microsoft Project improves accuracy, visibility, and control.

Features

This article provides guidance on the best practices to adopt when preparing for an audit or inspection, with a particular focus on commissioning and qualification and the points to consider during the development of materials to explain a company’s individual approach to commissioning, qualification, and validation maintenance.

Features
Computerized system validation (CSV) remains a cornerstone of regulatory compliance, but it is still time-consuming, resource-intensive, and prone to human error. Risk assessments, test development, traceability, and documentation absorb enormous effort and often slow down innovation. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to change this.
Features

Categorization offers a useful starting point for assessing the risk of failure for individual software components, but it is not a validation checklist. Organizations must apply critical thinking to combine categorization with risk assessment and supplier assessments to appropriately scale life cycle activities and manage risk.

Features
Large language models (LLMs) can enable decision support in pharmaceutical manufacturing but can also create risks through overreliance. LLM-enabled computerized systems have the potential to increase assessment consistency and performance in a scalable way for automated decision-making workflows.
Features

This article presents a model for promoting data quality of real-world data and evidence (RWD/RWE) and GxP processes with references to ISO 8000 for data quality management, making it a common language between regulated and nonregulated organizations.

Features

Data integrity drives quality and compliance. Content addressable storage (CAS) stores and retrieves files by content type—not file location—using cryptographic fingerprints. The result: a mathematically provable version control, without broken links and far fewer audit headaches.

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White Paper
This whitepaper provides principles and practical expectations for manufacturing operations within the scope of GMP Annex 1, focusing on four areas: environmental monitoring and control; aseptic process validation; equipment and facility design; and personnel practices. Each subject area was drafted as an individual chapter to the whitepaper by multicompany and multidisciplinary teams with...
White Paper
The life science validation sector is evolving with a focus on risk-based methodologies and increased access to digital data, driving innovation. The rise of Digital Validation Tools (DVTs) reflects the industry's emphasis on data integrity and principles of Pharma 4.0 and Validation 4.0. These advancements streamline monitoring and provide real-time insights into validated statuses through...
White Paper

Currently, there is no single guidance document providing a comprehensive roadmap for executing digital validation. While elements from ISPE GAMP® Guides Series and the ISPE Baseline® Guide: Volume 8 – Pharma 4.0™, apply to digital validation, there is no consolidated resource addressing common questions. The authors of this Concept Paper therefore advocate for the development of a Good...

Latest Articles

iSpeak Blog

Scientific innovation continues to accelerate across the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. From biologics and antibody-drug conjugates to cell and gene therapies, mRNA technologies, and radiopharmaceuticals, new treatment modalities are creating opportunities to address some of the world's most challenging diseases. Yet scientific discovery is only part of the journey. Ensuring...

iSpeak Blog

In an era of increasingly complex global supply chains and heightened regulatory scrutiny following the COVID-19 pandemic, the pharmaceutical industry faces a critical challenge: how to move from reactive crisis management to proactive supply reliability. While regulatory bodies worldwide have launched numerous initiatives to prevent shortages, industry efforts are also driving real-world...

iSpeak Blog

Pharmaceutical manufacturing depends on precision, rigor, and compliance. But technical excellence alone does not keep operations moving. Engineers, quality professionals, production teams, scientists, and regulatory personnel must continually exchange technical information, make decisions, and align around shared priorities.

iSpeak Blog

A biologic drug product compounding step often transfers seamlessly on paper. The formulation is unchanged, the order of addition is the same, and the target concentration remains identical. The batch record at the receiving site calls for the qualified mixing speed and mixing time, and that is what the operator follows. Everything appears to match.

iSpeak Blog
The pharmaceutical industry has made remarkable progress over the past decade. Artificial intelligence, digital twins, robotics, advanced analytics, automation and connected manufacturing are transforming the way medicines are developed and produced. These innovations are helping organizations improve efficiency, strengthen quality systems and ultimately deliver better outcomes for patients.
iSpeak Blog

As biomanufacturing campuses grow in scale and complexity, organizations need facility strategies that can support rapid expansion, regulatory compliance, and long-term operational resilience. This blog post examines the role of architect-led campus master planning in aligning product pipeline assumptions, manufacturing requirements, technical infrastructure, logistics, and implementation...

iSpeak Blog
What are the most important themes shaping pharmaceutical manufacturing and operations in 2026? According to 2026 ISPE Annual Meeting & Expo International Program Committee Executive Chair Jose Caraballo-Oramas and International Program Committee Chair Connie Langer, the answer lies in balancing scientific innovation, reliable manufacturing systems, artificial intelligence (AI), workforce...
iSpeak Blog

US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) investigators do not start with the deviation log. They start somewhere else. Most facilities do not know where.

iSpeak Blog

How can pharmaceutical companies achieve inspection-ready digital compliance in the Pharma 4.0™ era? As manufacturers adopt artificial intelligence (AI), connected manufacturing systems, advanced analytics, cloud platforms, and digital quality processes, regulatory compliance must be built into operations from the beginning rather than addressed after implementation....

iSpeak Blog

The ISPE Foundation Professional Development Grant program is designed to help students and recent graduates accelerate their professional growth by participating in premier industry events. Through financial support to attend ISPE conferences, the program provides emerging professionals with opportunities to learn from industry experts, explore the latest trends shaping pharmaceutical...

iSpeak Blog

Driven by a passion for science, problem-solving, and improving patient outcomes, Keira Mull is building a career in pharmaceutical manufacturing centered on continuous improvement and service. As a Senior Manufacturing Specialist at AstraZeneca and an active volunteer with ISPE's Chesapeake Bay Area Chapter, she is committed to operational excellence, mentorship, and professional...

iSpeak Blog

FUJIFILM Biotechnologies’ Galaxy project is redefining how large-scale biopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities are designed, built, and deployed. Recognized with an Honorable Mention in the 2026 ISPE Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA), the facility exemplifies how digital replication, modular construction, and Pharma 4.0™ technologies can accelerate the delivery of critical manufacturing...

iSpeak Blog
I spent Tuesday, 22 September in Madison, Wisconsin, USA with a few hundred colleagues at the ISPE Great Lakes Chapter’s Technology and Innovation Day. I was grateful for the invitation to give the keynote and even more grateful for the conversations throughout the event.
iSpeak Blog

This past June at the 2026 ISPE AI in Life Sciences Summit – Powered by GAMP®, I spent time with professionals from across our industry discussing AI, emerging technologies, and what comes next for pharmaceutical manufacturing. Those conversations prompted me to reflect on a topic that was woven throughout the event: innovation and how it happens.

iSpeak Blog
1986 was a memorable year. The world watched the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and the nuclear crisis at Chernobyl. Microsoft went public, Top Gun was in theaters, and Halley’s Comet made its return. It was also the year I graduated from college and began my career in the pharmaceutical industry. At about the same time, a small group of professionals in New Jersey, USA was beginning a journey...
iSpeak Blog
In today's highly regulated pharmaceutical manufacturing environment, understanding the fundamentals of commissioning and qualification (C&Q) is critical for ensuring quality, compliance, and operational readiness. To help professionals strengthen their expertise, ISPE is pleased to offer a new Commissioning and Qualification Microlearning: Bundle designed to deliver focused, practical knowledge...
iSpeak Blog

Quality and regulatory teams face a constant stream of external signals: draft and final guidance, inspection trends, revised standards, pharmacopeial updates, and industry commentary. Monitoring these signals is routine; deciding what to do with them is not. The common practice for most companies is to disseminate information broadly regarding updates but apply differing levels of scrutiny...

iSpeak Blog

Scope 3 Sustainability is defined as indirect emissions from an organization's supply chain and operations. Data collection and reporting of Scope 3 emissions within the pharmaceutical manufacturing supply chain is complex and complicated by current regulations, GMP requirements and the diverse geography of suppliers within a global supply chain. The Scope 3 task force within ISPE's...

iSpeak Blog

In the first part of this series, we examined the current state of material transfer across cleanroom grades in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Despite rapid advances in automation, the transition between zones of different GMP classifications remains heavily dependent on manual decontamination processes.

iSpeak Blog

Eli Lilly and Company’s Lilly Concord manufacturing facility is redefining what is possible in pharmaceutical project delivery. Recognized with the 2026 ISPE Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) Operations – Project Execution Category Award, the North Carolina site demonstrates how innovative execution strategies, advanced digital technologies, and disciplined governance can dramatically...

Current Issue

July / August 2026

This issue explores how digital transformation is reshaping regulated industries, highlighting advancements in modular digital ecosystems and AI to accelerate decision velocity while redefining validation frameworks.