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The new year is here and, with that, another International Women’s Day approaches! This incredibly important global movement, which takes place every 8 March, celebrates women’s achievements, raises awareness about discrimination, and advocates for accelerated equality and gender parity. ISPE’s Women in Pharma® community strives to accomplish all these goals through regional and international...

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ISPE has more than 21,000 members in more than 120 countries worldwide. As an ISPE member, you have access to this network, which can be exciting and overwhelming at the same time. Connecting at the local level unlocks the unique benefits that your local Affiliate or Chapter holds. Not only is this a career game changer, but it also opens doors of opportunity to experience your ISPE membership...

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The impact people have on others’ lives is not always obvious. For many, the Advil mini pill might not seem like a big deal, but for people who have trouble swallowing pills, like cancer patients, the tiny pill has made a huge difference in their ability to manage pain. It’s projects like that, as well as treatments for bladder cancer and transthyretin amyloidosis, that Tammy Spain is most...

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In a prerecorded interview shown during a keynote session at the 2023 ISPE Annual Meeting & Expo, Tom Hartman, ISPE President and CEO, and Dr. Robert M. Califf discussed several far-ranging and important topics. Califf, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 25th Commissioner is a recognized expert in cardiovascular medicine, health outcomes research,...

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On 19 October, the ISPE Foundation hosted its 2nd Annual Golf Tournament at Wildhorse Golf Course following this year’s Annual Meeting & Expo in Las Vegas.

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The new ISPE Good Practice Guide: Process Gases, Second Edition presents recent advances in construction materials and updates on current good practices. It was revised based on the latest International Organization for Standardization in Pharmaceuticals, American Society for Testing and Materials, and American Society of Mechanical Engineers standards and is aligned with the latest regulatory...

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An ISPE member since 1999, Charlie Wakeham has been active within the ISPE GAMP® community since 2001. A founding member of the GAMP UK Community of Practice (CoP), she is currently Chair of the GAMP Global CoP Steering Committee, one of the leaders of the GAMP Computer Software Assurance Special Interest Group (SIG), and a member of the ISPE Guidance Documents Committee. She has co-led or...

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Lorrie Vuolo-Schuessler has been involved with ISPE and GAMP® projects since 2002. She has authored or co-led 11 ISPE GAMP-focused guidance documents, including ISPE GAMP® 5: A Risk-Based Approach to Compliant GxP Computerized Systems (Second Edition) and the ISPE GAMP® Good Practice Guide: Enabling Innovation - Critical Thinking, Agile, IT Service Management. She is Immediate Past Chair of...

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The 2023 ISPE Biotechnology Conference opened on 26 June with a series of six keynote presentations on biotechnology and the development and manufacturing of advanced therapies. Tom Hartman, President and CEO of ISPE, introduced each of the keynote speakers.

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Erich H. Bozenhardt is the Associate Director of Process Engineering in Regenerative Medicine Operations at United Therapeutics. Erich is an experienced bioprocess subject matter expert and internationally recognized authority in the areas of cell and gene therapy and bioprocessing. He has published more than 30 technical papers and is a frequent presenter at conferences.

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Michelangelo Canzoneri, PhD, is a seasoned leader in the digital transformation space within the healthcare and life science industry currently serving as the Global Head of Group Smart Manufacturing at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. In this pivotal role, he functions as the primary business interface across the life science, healthcare, and electronics sectors, steering the incubation,...

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The field of advanced therapeutic medicinal products (ATMPs) has witnessed remarkable advancements in recent years. The Emerging Leaders (EL) community from the Belgium and Germany/Austria/Switzerland (D/A/CH) affiliates collaborated to develop an inclusive series of online seminars on ATMPs. This article gives highlights of the speakers, topics, and knowledge shared in ATMP online seminars...

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Annex 1, the European Union’s revised GMP requirements for the manufacturing of sterile medicinal products, will take effect on 25 August 2023. In this panel, experts involved in industry’s commenting of the draft versions of Annex 1 offered background information on how the document was developed and answered questions on its implementation.

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Hubertus Rehbaum, PhD, is Chair of the Process Analytical Technology & Lifecycle Control Strategy (PAT-LCS) Community of Practice (CoP) Steering Committee. He’s been a member of ISPE for eight years. He first became involved through the Germany/Austria/Switzerland (D/A/CH) Affiliate when he joined as an Emerging Leader and helped co-host events for the group, which he said helped him...

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Catherine Hall is Chair of the Investigational Products, North America (IPNA) Community of Practice (CoP) Steering Committee and is one of the authors of the ISPE Good Practice Guide: Investigational Medicinal Product Reverse Logistics – Good Returns and Reconciliation Practices. She has been a member of ISPE for 18 years.

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The pharmaceutical industry began applying the principles of continuous processing to the manufacture of oral solid dosage (OSD) forms in the mid-2000s. The consensus among experienced practitioners is that the continuous approach has numerous benefits. “Continuous manufacturing provides for a full range of product life cycle, from small volume clinical production to large volume commercial...

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Heather Watson has been a member of ISPE for 22 years. She is Chair of the GAMP® Global Steering Committee and has been a recipient of the ISPE Committee of the Year Award on three occasions, and was Co-Chair of the ISPE 

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Christian Wölbeling has been a member of ISPE for 25 years. A founding member and current Chair of ISPE’s Pharma 4.0™ Community of Practice (CoP) Steering Committee, Christian has also been very involved with the GAMP® and Process Analytical Technology CoPs, as well as the ISPE Germany/Austria/Switzerland (D/A/CH) Affiliate.

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The United Kingdom Emerging Leaders Awards program is an exciting initiative for ISPE because it recognizes and celebrates the efforts and contributions of young engineers in the United Kingdom pharmaceutical engineering and manufacturing sectors.

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“Over the past 20 years, there have been an increasing number of highly potent materials handled within the pharma industry, to the point where most modern products require some degree of containment or other exposure control to maintain safety,” said guide team member Peter Marshall, AstraZeneca (retired).

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As Head of Merck’s Global Manufacturing Operations and one of the most senior operations leaders in Merck, Sanat is responsible for Merck’s worldwide manufacturing operations and product supply, supporting global sales revenue of over $55 billion.

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Roujian “RJ” Zhang is Chair of ISPE’s new Quality Control (QC)/Analytical Community of Practice (CoP) Steering Committee. He is also Chief Quality Officer at Evive Biotech, responsible for all aspects of quality for the company, ensuring safety and efficacy, making critical quality decisions, and keeping the company up to date with new regulations. RJ became interested in the pharmaceutical...

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Terry Jacobs is Chair of the Oral Solid Dosage (OSD) Community of Practice (CoP) Steering Committee. He is a recognized expert in the design of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and corporate facilities and has completed projects for clients in the US, China, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia. He has lectured extensively on the planning and programming of laboratories and manufacturing and other...

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Cultural excellence is the expressed and implied ways in which an organization operates. Excellence in organizational culture is essential for delivering robust and sustained quality performance and ensuring patient-focused outcomes. ISPE’s new Advancing Pharmaceutical Quality (APQ) Guide: Cultural Excellence provides a quality management framework for assessing and advancing an organization’s...

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With this issue, Pharmaceutical Engineering® launches a new feature in P+E: profiles of Communities of Practice (CoP) leaders. These leaders are central to the success of ISPE’s CoPs, which spearhead the generation of ISPE’s gold standard content, including Good Practice Guides, Pharmaceutical Engineering articles, conference presentations, and training programs.

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With this issue, Pharmaceutical Engineering® launches a new feature in P+E: profiles of Communities of Practice (CoP) leaders. These leaders are central to the success of ISPE’s CoPs, which spearhead the generation of ISPE’s gold standard content, including Good Practice Guides, Pharmaceutical Engineering articles, conference presentations, and training programs.

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When nominating Martin (Marty) Lipa, Executive Director, Knowledge Management, Merck & Co. Inc., for the 2022 Max Seales Yonker Member of the Year Award, Anne Greene, Professor, Technological University Dublin, said, “Arguably the last year has been pivotal for the practice of knowledge management (KM) in the pharmaceutical industry based on new knowledge management frameworks and guidance...

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ISPE’s new Advancing Pharmaceutical Quality (APQ) Guide: Process Performance and Product Quality Monitoring System (PPPQMS) focuses on the key aspects of maintaining and establishing an effective PPPQMS. An effective PPPQMS is crucial to establishing and maintaining a state of control. It enables continual improvement and is key to proactively identifying the need for product quality and...

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The Commissioning and Qualification (C&Q) CoP was one of the first Communities of Practices to be established at ISPE. One of its founding members, Steve Wisniewski, Principal Consultant, CAI, said the Communities of Practice was formed in 2004 to identify and promote more efficient approaches that resulted in pharmaceutical facilities being fit for their intended purpose.

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The ninth ISPE Europe Annual Conference was the first in-person conference after a break of over two years due to the pandemic. For travel-related reasons, some attendees participated remotely. With 450 participants on-site and nearly 490 total attendees, the usual atmosphere of an

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For nearly a century, production of water for injection (WFI) was universally accepted to be distillation-based. As emphasis on costs and environmental concerns has grown, pharmacopeias around the world have focused on the quality attributes of WFI to allow for consideration of other production technologies.

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ISPE has more than 19,000 members from more than 129 countries, and many of them spend countless hours sharing their knowledge and connecting with others, helping ISPE to advance the educational and technical efficiency of all members.

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Effective and timely management of change throughout the product life cycle enables quality improvement and is critical to patient safety, supply reliability, and operational effectiveness and efficiency. The ISPE Advancing Pharmaceutical Quality (APQ) Guide: Change Management System provides a quality management framework for assessing and advancing change management (CM) system maturity...

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Eleanor Small, the 2021 recipient of the ISPE Max Seales Yonker Member of the Year award, uses her creativity and adaptability to discover new solutions in her work and to help ISPE succeed. She received the honor at the

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The lack of diversity in the pharmaceutical engineering industry is widely recognized. Less well understood is why change is so hard to achieve. From my years of work in this space, and through observation of ongoing efforts to embrace diversity in all forms, I have developed a hypothesis: Progress is stifled because we as a society wrongly believe diversity and inclusion efforts are...

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Eamon Judge, the 2020 recipient of the Max Seales Yonker Member of the Year award, exemplifies the values behind the award: service to the industry and inspiring ISPE members to volunteer.

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Since the first edition of the ISPE Good Practice Guide: Good Engineering Practice (GEP) was published in 2008, the pharmaceutical industry and regulators developed industry standards, best practices, and regulatory guidance around topics that relate to Good Engineering Practice, culminating in particular in the ISPE Baseline Guide: Commissioning & Qualification (Second Edition). The...

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The second guide in ISPE’s Advancing Pharmaceutical Quality (APQ) series provides a systematic and proactive approach to quantitatively assessing and advancing leadership systems by evaluating the management responsibilities highlighted in ICH Q10 as well as other key leadership components.

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Equipment reliability helps reduce and manage the risk of failures in equipment, providing focus on availability, fitness for purpose, and cost. Reliable equipment improves the likelihood of achieving reliable manufacturing operations, which improves the supply of critical therapies to patients worldwide.

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To continue meeting the professional needs of ISPE members and with the global increase of virtual events due to COVID, ISPE has expanded its webinar offerings on topics important to ISPE members and industry sponsors.

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The ISPE D/A/CH affiliate Is a Leader in Many Respects, from Its Ever-Increasing Size to the Invaluable Engagement of Its Members, Who Contribute to Ispe’s Growth around the World. Grouping Together Europe’s German-Speaking Countries—Germany (D), Austria (a), and Switzerland (Ch)—It Is Currently the Second Largest Ispe...

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ISPE has a new special interest group (SIG) to work on IT cybersecurity. The Special Interest Group was formed under GAMP®. A conversation with Jason Young of Silver Bullet Security, who heads the new group, provides details about the Special Interest Group.

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ISPE’s online site for Pharmaceutical Engineering was launched a little over one year ago, in November 2018. Here are some statistics about the site’s success during its first year.

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Young Professional Brita Salzmann, a Process Engineer with CRB and member of the ISPE Greater Los Angeles Chapter, loves the challenge of backpacking. She continues to add to her hiking resume, which includes treks across segments of the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, 14,000-foot-high peaks in Colorado, and national parks throughout the West. For Salzmann, the...

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More than 200 attendees from manufacturers and key suppliers attended ISPE’s first European conference on aseptic manufacturing in the old capital of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Vienna. Austria is a hot spot for biopharmaceutical manufacturing with a number of global manufacturers or subsidiaries of major pharmaceutical companies. The

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Enhanced and accelerated regulatory pathways for “Breakthrough Therapies (United States) and “PRIME” medicines (European Union) have been introduced to provide faster access to exciting new therapies developed to treat unmet medical needs.1

  • 1US Food and Drug Administration. Guidance for Industry. “Expedited Programs for Serious Conditions— Drugs and Biologics.” May 2014.
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This year, ISPE Young Professionals held over 60 events in 15 countries, drawing more than 2,000 attendees—an amazing testament to the growth of the YP community. This Special Section details the success of these global activities and the IYPC’s exciting work over the past year.

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Highlights from the stories of the five Category Winners and two Honorable Mentions of this year's Facilities of the Year Awards (FOYA) showcase pharmaceutical industry achievements.

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This year's ISPE Annual Meeting & Expo will be held from 4 to 7 November in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The theme is "Vision to Reality: Delivering Next-Generation Therapies." The first keynote presentation, by Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, President and CEO, Novo Nordisk A/S and Honorary Conference Chair, will address leadership in diabetes management and groundbreaking manufacturing...

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Gain complimentary access to select ISPE Good Practice Guides through the new portal. Members appreciate the practical knowledge and real-world examples built into our Good Practice Guides, so we made them available for free on the Portal.

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ISPE's 2018 Facilities of the Future Conference highlighted emerging technologies that are driving change in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Topics included virtual reality, robotics, artificial learning, machine learning, and 3D printing. Education sessions were divided into Industry 4.0 and continuous manufacturing (CM) tracks.
 

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Home to more than 51 million people, South Korea is one of the "Four Asian Tigers," along with Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. These countries experienced rapid expansion and high growth rates beginning in the 1960s, developing into highly advanced economies. South Korea's pharmaceutical industry is the third largest in Asia and the 13th largest in the world, with annual sales that are...

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ISPE's revised IT Infrastructure Control and Compliance Guide provides comprehensive guidance on regulatory expectations for both traditional and cloud-based IT platforms. Have we done enough?

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Special interest groups (SIGs) have been an important part of ISPE for many years. SIGs are formed around a specific area of interest, policy, or technology in which members have identified a common challenge. These "microcommunities" foster interaction among a variety of technical domains and often result in creative responses to industry change. SIGs must align with a community of...

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In March 2017, ISPE submitted an extensive and detailed response1 to the 2016 US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) draft guidance "Submission of Quality Metrics Data,"2

  • 1International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering. Response to FDA Docket Number FDA-2015-D-2537. 27 March 2017. https://ispe.org
  • 2US Food and Drug...

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They say that ongoing growth is the key to a fulfilling career. If that holds true, young professional Lise Heyninck of Belgium has the mindset and drive to build a long and successful career in the pharmaceutical industry.

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There is still a lot of uncertainty on how to effectively structure a corporate data integrity program. It starts with the definition of the scope and often it ends with parallel work between departments who are owners of different systems along the value chain.