This article describes the numerous activities in the commercial quality control (QC) network that aim to replace in vivo assays with alternative methods in the course of production and release.1

Reducing the pharmaceutical industry’s carbon footprint has become a management responsibility. This article introduces some of the key points, actual methods, and practical examples of our implementation to reduce carbon emissions from pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in Southeast Asia.

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies employ platform analytical procedures in the development stages of their synthetic and biological drug products and are beginning to leverage them for commercial products. This shift is supported by the acceptance of platform procedures in the recently adopted ICH Q2(R2) and ICH Q14. Six case studies are shared in this article to highlight how...

The pharmaceutical industry faces considerable challenges throughout the development, manufacturing, and supply of medicines, largely due to the intricate and divergent global regulatory landscape. The adoption of structured data standards and utilization of cloud-based platforms offer immense potential to overcome these challenges by facilitating faster and more efficient global...

This article offers an overview of the benefits of Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme (PIC/S) membership for regulatory authorities and industry. It also highlights Latin American regulators’ current perspectives on PIC/S membership to increase awareness and encourage open dialogue about harmonization, recognition agreements, and potential increase for export facilitation, all which...

The explosive growth of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs), particularly cellular therapeutics, has driven steady investment in facilities capable of manufacturing these therapeutics at scale . Meanwhile, the industry is collectively moving to adapt to European Union Annex 1 standards, which places a more stringent emphasis on contamination control.

Cell and gene therapy (C&GT) products represent a significant step forward in patient treatment and often offer unique patient benefits. However, product developers face significant hurdles within the regulatory landscape. The tools laid out in the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) Q12 guideline: “Technical and...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advocates for the integration of quality by design (QbD) principles throughout the pharmaceutical product development landscape, aiming to elevate both process understanding and product quality. Key challenges to the process control strategy include navigating time- and resource-intensive processes. One solution is digital shadow technology which, when...

The commercialization of personalized medicine has ushered in demand for a new type of facility—personalized medicine facilities—which can produce thousands of small-scale batches per year. There are currently only a handful of these sites, but many more are in various stages of design and construction. Designing these personalized medicine facilities presents new challenges, and a different...

Digital display labels (DDLs) offer an alternative solution to eliminate manual relabeling in the clinical supply chain, optimizing label content updates through a simple, system-controlled approach while providing new, uncharted opportunities. With increased efficiency in making regulatory-compliant changes and enhanced flexibility in the clinical supply chain, DDL technology has the...

The Asia Pacific region (APAC), like any large territory, encompasses a blend of well-established and early-stage economies, diverse healthcare systems, and differences in language, culture, politics, and technology adoption. APAC’s size and complexity has created new challenges and opportunities for the pharmaceutical industry as nations work together to meet the manufacturing needs for...

Stakeholders across industries are becoming accustomed to using information technology (IT) systems, applications, and business solutions that feature artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Even though some of these uses show phenomenal performance, thorough risk management is required to ensure quality and regulatory compliance are met within the life sciences industry. By...

Due to the growing digitalization of the industry, we are highly dependent on information technology (IT) systems and data. The basic ability to execute our pharmaceutical business and decision-making processes relies on the permanent availability of these IT systems and data to ensure compliance and efficiency of our business operations. But numerous factors—including criminal activities,...

IT infrastructure has traditionally been provisioned using a combination of scripts and manual processes. This manual approach was slow and introduced the risk of human error, resulting in inconsistency between environments or even leaving the infrastructure in an unqualified state. In this article, we investigate some fundamental advantages of using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for...

Advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) are one of the most promising developments in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries in recent decades. Although there is a great promise to treat and even cure many diseases with these products, there are also unique challenges, especially with their supply chains.

Facility design decisions made early in conceptual design can have a significant impact on the cost of goods sold (COGS) in the manufacture of autologous and allogeneic cell therapy products. Understanding the impact of a COGS analysis is an important aspect of the early-phase design process.

There is much that large-scale commercial stem cell therapy processes can adopt from the existing bioprocessing industry. This article addresses some of the unique challenges posed by large-scale stem cell and stem cell–derived product manufacturing processes, and what should be considered while designing a manufacturing facility.

As the demand for accelerated access to medicines expands globally, the pharmaceutical industry is increasingly submitting regulatory applications in multiple countries simultaneously. As a result, Boards of Health (BoHs) are challenged with approving these applications in an accelerated timeframe and accommodating the submission of postapproval chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC)...

The new European Commission GMP Annex 1 “Manufacture of Sterile Medicinal Products” and the equivalent Annex 2 from the World Health Organization (WHO) triggered a discussion in ISPE’s Germany/Austria/Switzerland (D/A/CH) Aseptic Processing Community of Practice (CoP) Steering Committee about where to qualify air speed: “at working position” versus “at working level.” This article provides...

The biopharmaceutical industry must develop and implement innovative ways of working to be effective and efficient in the current healthcare ecosystem, in which high-quality medicines, adaptability, and assurance of supply are of critical importance. There are regulatory strategies and technologies emerging to address these challenges, but further progress must be made to fully harness the...

Shortages of essential medicines around the world have been an ongoing concern for patients, caregivers, and regulators and have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many regulators have instituted requirements for reporting potential or actual drug shortages.Acosta, A., E. P. Vanegas, J. Ronvira, B. Godman, and T. Bochenek. “Medicine Shortages: Gaps Between Countries and...

The creation of a new ICH guidance document, Q13,International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use. “ICH Harmonised Tripartite Guideline Q13: Continuous Manufacturing of Drug Substances and Drug Products.” Published July 2021.

Continuous manufacturing (CM) challenged regulators’ expectations and regulatory frameworks. This article discusses how US regulators addressed the regulatory hurdles related to CM to broaden its adoption through engagement, regulatory science, guidance, and international harmonization.

When working with the common technical dossier (CTD), the structure of Module 2 “follows the scope and outline of the Body of Data in Module 3,”International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use. “Concept Paper: M4Q(R2) Common Technical Document on Quality Guideline.” Published 15 November 2021.

Funded by the European Commission from 2019, the Smart Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Project (SPuMoNI)Smart Pharmaceutical Manufacturing. SPuMoNI homepage. http://www.spumoni.eu/ harnesses the potential of state-of-the-art technologies for the pharmaceutical industry. This article discusses the main SPuMoNI accomplishments.

The global pandemic has demonstrated that now, more than ever, we need to work toward a global solution and prioritize the harmonization of technical requirements. Positive improvements have been observed in the acceptance and implementation of international standards by various regulatory agencies in Latin America. This article offers an overview of the chemistry, manufacturing, and controls...

The success of the biopharmaceutical industry and the expansion of manufacturing facilities, of both existing companies and newcomers, has put a strain on the number of temporary and permanent skilled workers needed to fill many positions in the Triangle.

North Carolina’s Research Triangle is the largest of its kind in the US. Thanks to years of effort from industry, pharmaceutical professionals, and education institutions, it is synonymous with pharmaceutical and biotechnology excellence.

While financial investment in novel therapies provides patients with new treatment options and improved quality of care, the pharmaceutical industry also recognizes its responsibility to transition toward more sustainable development, manufacturing, and stewardship of medicines throughout their life cycle.

The scientific community accepts that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cause global warming and climate change.Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). “Sixth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis.” Finalized 9 August 2021.

The imperative for global action to tackle climate change is clear and the pharmaceutical industry has a key role to play. Governments have entered into international commitments to reduce climate impact (carbon emissions) and protect nature (water, land, air, and biodiversity) with policy frameworks established to facilitate and drive progress against agreed targets.United...

As the pharmaceutical industry faces ever-changing global challenges and market forces, it must review and revise product design to ensure that quality products remain available in the marketplace while moving toward zero pollution for air, water, and soil. This article provides an introduction on how quality products can integrate sustainability by design.

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have led to its widespread industrial adoption, with machine learning (ML) algorithms demonstrating advances in performance in a wide range of tasks. However, this comes with an ever-increasing complexity of the algorithms used, rendering such systems more difficult to explain.Samek, W., and K. R. Müller. “Towards Explainable...

ISPE’s GAMP^® 5: A Risk-Based Approach to Compliant GxP Computerized Systems (Second Edition) (GAMP^® 5 Guide, 2nd Edition) maintains the principles and framework of the first edition and updates their application in the modern world, including the increased importance of service providers, evolving approaches to software development, and expanded use of software tools and...

This article explores life-cycle activities for machine learning (ML) within regulated life sciences. It positions and contextualizes the life cycle and management of the machine learning subsystem or components within a wider system life cycle. It also gives general descriptions and guidance illustrated by a case study demonstrating a machine learning application to medical image recognition,...

Many organizations are evaluating how advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) and other traditional modalities may be combined within the same facility or within a newly constructed agnostic building. This article outlines a broad framework to evaluate different types of modalities that may be accommodated concurrently in a new or existing facility and then uses a case study to explain how...

Cell and gene therapies (C&GT) have unique needs in manufacturing suites that differ from those for classic product biopharmaceuticals. Facilities must be created with flexibility in mind, able to run multiple products and production types to remain viable.

Resounding clinical successes and maturation of extensive therapeutic pipelines have catapulted oligonucleotides from a fringe modality to therapeutic relevance in just a few short years. Oligonucleotides are a cornerstone of a burgeoning class of drugs classified as nucleic acid therapeutics. These therapies interact with DNA and RNA targets rather than traditional protein therapeutic...

A reliable supply of raw materials is critical to maintain a robust supply chain to serve patients globally. With shortages, regulatory complexity is compounded due to differences in submission and data requirements from various regulatory agencies. Therefore, there is an increasing need to implement a harmonized regulatory infrastructure that is both flexible and predictable to provide more...

Postapproval change management of pharmaceuticals is an essential part of life-cycle management but is associated with regulatory challenges. Incorporating concepts and tools from the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) Q12 guideline, combined with structured content and data management (SCDM) and a cloud-based data exchange...

The International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) guideline on Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (M4)International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use. “The Common Technical Document for the Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use: Quality–M4Q (R1)...

Although data and knowledge are both stand-alone disciplines that need to be systematically managed, they also must have a connection. Understanding the relationship between data and knowledge management processes and how people are leveraging advances like Pharma 4.0™ combined with these processes enables quality data transition to knowledge that can help pharmaceutical companies. The authors...

ISPE held an Expert Xchange on 18 January 2022 entitled “Risk-Based Decision Making: Advancing the Integration of Quality Risk Management (QRM) and Knowledge Management (KM).” The session included presentations and interactive exercises that generated new and useful insights into the current effectiveness of the knowledge that flows into QRM and how a knowledge map can be used to diagnose...

In a recent advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) innovator survey, two-thirds of respondents reported that they are developing multiple drug platforms.CRB Group. Cell and Gene Therapy Report. 2020. http://go.crbgroup.com/2020-horizons-atmp Without a guarantee of commercial success for any single product, many...

Realizing the promise of any novel viral vector therapeutic depends on the innovator’s ability to constantly meet evolving program requirements set in the product’s preclinical; clinical; chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC); and market strategies. A key enabler to success is establishing a robust yet nimble viral vector manufacturing platform that delivers high-quality product on time...

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become one of the supporting pillars for digitalization in many areas of the business world. The pharmaceutical industry and its GxP-regulated areas also want to use AI in a beneficial way. Several pharmaceutical companies are currently running digital pilots, but only a small fraction follows a systematic approach for the digitalization of their operations

With the publication of recent guidance, specifically the US FDA Quality Systems Approach to Pharmaceutical cGMP RegulationsUS Food and Drug Administration. “Guidance for Industry. Quality Systems Approach to Pharmaceutical cGMP Regulations.” Published September 2006. https://www.fda.gov/media/71023/download and the...

This article aims to refresh information on open-source software (OSS) within regulated computerized systems that was first discussed in an article in May-June 2010 Pharmaceutical Engineering®. The adoption of OSS advanced since then, and the article explores the importance of recognizing when an organization is relying on OSS and the benefits and risks this brings from a GAMP® 5...

During the past decade, industry has experienced a proliferation of regulatory divergence regarding the interpretation and implementation of International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) guidelines (and control strategies) across geographic regions. This article shares data that highlight instances where well-established ICH...

With the rise of new technologies and predictive analytics capable of handling the huge amounts of data within and across existing information systems, Industry 4.0 has been thriving in many sectors, such as industrial automation, financial technology, retail, and semiconductors. But the health sector in general,Singh, P., S. N. Singh, and L. Ram. “Health 4.0: Role of Health...

Emerging Leaders has grown from an initiative for interactions among early-career professionals entering ISPE into much more: a training ground, a networking organization, and a new foundation for the future of ISPE and the industry. This article looks at the history of the group, its purpose, current and future initiatives, and a name change that better reflects the path of its members.

Industry 4.0 applications in biopharma involve the complete spectrum of data science throughout the entire product life cycle of many disparate entity types. Tools such as digitalization, modern data science, and the industrial internet of things (IIoT) exist now, and examples from other industries such as Siri and Alexa, face identification, and self-driving cars can guide their...

Historically, cell therapies are used to treat patients with cancer after relapse from other approved treatment modalities, or if no approved treatment is available. However, the introduction of allogeneic cell therapies has created exciting opportunities to broaden access to cell-based treatments. With advancements in manufacturing, developers are becoming increasingly interested in...

The process of bringing new drugs and products to market requires creativity, thinking outside the box, and the courage to fail numerous times before making a single discovery. This rings especially true now, as the industry faces the COVID-19 pandemic and doubts about vaccines and therapies getting to market in record time to improve human health. This article presents a deep dive into gene...

The ISPE Global Pharmaceutical Regulatory Summit, held virtually on 28 April 2021, brought together 11 regulators from different parts of the world to discuss how their...

Management of global postapproval chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC) changes is a growing challenge for industry with many issues. ICH Q12 (Technical and Regulatory Considerations for Pharmaceutical Product Lifecycle Management) is a transformative document shaping global regulatory postapproval submissions that will help alleviate some of these issues.

Continuous manufacturing (CM) offers one way the pharmaceutical industry can accelerate development of the drug product control strategy to ensure a robust and reliable supply of medicine to the clinic and/or market. This article explores the promise of continuous manufacturing in enhancing accelerated development, as evidenced by experience in solid oral products.

Continuous manufacturing has attracted significant interest over the past decade for small molecules formulated as drug products. The case for adopting continuous manufacturing platforms for manufacturing biologics (i.e., large proteins or biologic products such as vaccines) would, in principle, be even more justified for both quality and business gains. This article briefly reviews continuous...

Cloud computing can be described as networked access and utilization of configurable computing resources such as data and information storage, processing capabilities, applications, and other services on computerized systems provided and/or maintained by a remote organization. As life sciences companies consider the advantages and costs of utilizing cloud services, they first need to invest...

Real-world evidence (RWE) is clinical evidence regarding the usage and potential benefits or risks of a medical product derived from analysis of real-world data (RWD) relating to patient health status and the healthcare delivery.US Food and Drug Administration. “Use of Real-World Evidence to Support Regulatory Decision-Making for Medical Devices: Guidance for Industry and Food...

This article focuses on pragmatic quality- and risk-based approaches to IT infrastructure. It covers recommendations made by a US FDA/industry team linked to the US FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) Case for Quality initiativeUS Food and Drug Administration Center for Devices and Radiological Health. “Case for Quality.” 29 July 2020.

The ISPE Pharma 4.0™ Special Interest Group (SIG) launched in 2015 to provide a road map for new challenges of digitalization, Industry 4.0, and the smart factory. The Special Interest Group addresses how pharmaceutical industry stakeholders, including regulatory authorities, can achieve benefits from

The fourth Industrial Revolution (also known as Industry 4.0) is the era of smart machines, storage systems, and production plants that can autonomously exchange information, trigger actions, and control operations free of any human intervention. To ensure future success in the delivery of therapeutic medicines to patients, it is imperative that the pharmaceutical industry move deeper into the...

Women in Pharma® is a place where women and men—especially those new to the industry—can access a network of mentors, role models, and educational resources to support their professional success. The widespread global interest...

Pharmaceutical companies rely on automated vision inspection (AVI) systems to help ensure product safety. Although these systems overcome challenges associated with manual inspection, they can be hindered by limitations in their programming—if the system is programmed to consider every variation in inspection conditions, it is likely to falsely identify defects in safe products. This article...

In many critical ways, the design of facilities for multiple cell therapy processes is unlike the design of conventional pharmaceutical facilities. This article surveys several of the key issues to consider when designing facilities capable of manufacturing multiple cell therapies, including regulatory definitions, product life cycles, processing systems, relevant cell therapy technologies and...

Designing new facilities for cell and gene therapy manufacturing is a challenging task given the many uncertainties in this industry sector, including varying potential demand for any given new therapy, evolving platforms and technology, questions about equipment reliability, learning curves for analysts and operators, possible sourcing issues, and variable lead times for key raw materials....

Existing risk-based approaches to computerized system compliance and validation as outlined in GAMP® 5International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering. GAMP® 5 Guide: A Risk-Based Approach to Compliant GxP Computerized Systems. North Bethesda, MD: International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering, 2008. are applicable to a variety of life sciences organizations...

In the pharmaceutical industry, digitalization involves developing and implementing digital technologies at all levels of pharmaceutical operations. The aim is to transform the industry by capturing, analyzing, and using vast amounts of data collected from a wide range of sources to support research and development (R&D), clinical development, drug manufacturing, supply chain management,...

The latest ICH guideline, ICH Q12,International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use. “ICH Harmonised Guideline: Technical and Regulatory Considerations for Pharmaceutical Product Lifecycle Management. Q12. Final Version.” 20 November 2019.

For over two decades, the ISPE Barrier Isolator Survey has gathered meaningful data on the applications of barrier technology and been a resource for the fill-finish pharmaceutical industry community. This article provides context for the latest survey, the first in several years, and presents its key results, which were first shared at the

On 20 November 2019, the ICH Assembly endorsed the Q12 guideline, “Technical and Regulatory Considerations for Pharmaceutical Product Lifecycle Management,” at its biannual meeting in Singapore. This transformational guideline has a wide scope of applicability across pharmaceutical drug substances and products (both chemical and biological), drug-device combination products that meet the...

This article introduces the concept of robotic process automation (RPA) and discusses how the technology may be used within a GAMP® framework to support both non-GxP and GxP processes.

In this issue of Pharmaceutical Engineering^®, we address an array of sustainability topics. This article surveys topics that will likely have a significant global impact on the way we conduct our business over the coming decade. We trace some history of sustainability in the life sciences industry and identify future issues of concern, including a number of areas...

The article appraises the real-world experiences of two pharmaceutical companies approaching the rollout of energy- and water-reduction programs to selected facilities around the world. It is the result of more than two years of collaboration between the company corporate teams, individual site teams, and an external specialist consultant.

Since the early 1990s, when the “upstart” biotech industry realized that its future success would be heavily influenced by the ability to manufacture multiple products within the same facility,Hill, D., and M. Beatrice. “Biotechnology Facility Requirements, Part 1, Facility and Systems Design.” BioPharm International 2, no. 9 (1989): 20–6. the quest for flexible...

Applying emerging technologies can lead to more robust and flexible manufacturing processes that in turn can help the pharmaceutical industry respond to drug shortages, reduce interruptions in production and delivery of medicines, ensure consistent clinical performance of products, and achieve other benefits. Although some may believe that regulators are averse to the use of emerging...