Articles should highlight regulations and guidance issued by the international regulatory bodies and coalitions. Case studies could demonstrate the application of regulations and industry-generated guidance for global harmonization of compliance and product registration. Topics could include regulations, standards, practices, and guidance related to drugs, the environment, health, and safety.

Features

With the Chinese government initiating drug regulatory reform in 2015 and China joining the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) in 2017, a significant number of measures have been implemented by the government. The aim is to make fundamental changes to China’s drug regulatory administration system so it can facilitate pharmaceutical development and better meet patient needs in the...

Features

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...

Features

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)...

Features

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...

Features

With the Chinese government initiating drug regulatory reform in 2015 and China joining the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) in 2017, a significant number of measures have been implemented by the government. The aim is to make fundamental changes to China’s drug regulatory administration system so it can facilitate pharmaceutical development and better meet patient needs in the...

Features

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...

Features

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)...

Features

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...

Features

This article describes how ISPE GAMP® 5: A Risk-Based Approach to Compliant GxP Computerized Systems (Second Edition) and related GAMP Good Practice Guides can be effectively applied to help meet the requirements of the proposed European Union (EU) artificial intelligence (AI) regulation for qualifying GxP-regulated systems employing AI and machine learning (ML).

Features

ISPE has launched an important new initiative, “Enabling Global Pharma Innovation: Delivering for Patients,” in support of the aspirations of many regulatory agencies globally to promote introduction of innovative pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Online Exclusives

On 7 March 2023, ISPE continued its tradition of concluding the 2023 ISPE Aseptic Conference with a regulatory panel question and answer session. Attendees were invited to submit questions to the FDA representatives. This article offers highlights from the discussion.

Online Exclusives

The ICH Quality Discussion Group (QDG) has recommended contemporizing the specification setting guidelines ICH Q6A and Q6B. This provides an excellent opportunity to update ICH Q6A/B to align and work in a complementary manner with the science-, risk/knowledge-based concepts in ICH Q8–Q12. The ISPE Pharmaceutical Quality Lifecycle Implementation (PQLI) Patient-Centric Specification working...

Features

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.1

  • 1Acosta, A., E. P. Vanegas, J. Ronvira, B. Godman, and T. Bochenek. “Medicine Shortages: Gaps Between Countries and...
InTouch

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.

Features

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...

Features

To enable changes across the pharmaceutical industry, sustainability should be included alongside quality, efficacy, and safety when assessing medicines. This article reviews two case studies that cover sustainable pack types and extension of shelf life. With the drive to manage unmet medical need through acceleration of drug development programs, postapproval sustainability variations will...

Features

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.1

  • 1United...
Features

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...

Technical

Three case studies on Validation 4.0 demonstrate how quality by design (QbD) principles, when applied with digitization, can verify processes in scale-up and technology transfer, and why blend and content uniformity matter for tablet integrity.

Features

The International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) guideline on Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (M4)1

  • 1International 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)...
Features

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...

Features

In its 30-year history, the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) has covered a wide range of topics to generate quality, safety, efficacy, and multidisciplinary harmonized guidelines. As science advances, issued guidelines are being updated and new guidelines are proposed in a pipeline of potential future activity. This...

Features

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.

Features

Application of continuous manufacturing (CM) in the pharmaceutical industry is gaining momentum. Most of the current experience is based on oral solid dosage (OSD) projects but in the future continuous manufacturing should not be limited to these dosage forms. In this article, the regulatory acceptability of continuous manufacturing to produce pharmaceuticals is demonstrated in different...

Technical

Since 2019, the ISPE France Affiliate’s Unique Device Identification (UDI) Medical Device Work Group has been producing tools to help project stakeholders within the EU or overseas understand and comply with EU regulations of UDIs in medical devices. Some of those tools are highlighted in the article.

Technical

For a multiproduct facility where equipment is shared, there is always a risk from cross-contamination. The correct calculation of the cleaning validation limits from maximum allowable carryover (MACO) of a marker compound to the next product is vital for the integrity and success of the cleaning validation program. However, the process yielding those limits often involves cumbersome,...

Features

Across every industry today, digitalization is driving the use and value of data to disrupt traditional business models and ways of working. In pharmaceuticals, the promises of Industry 4.0 are expected, and needed, to finally modernize the legacy approaches that have evolved since the 1970s. Validation is an obvious target for digital disruption because of the inefficient, document-heavy...

Features

Personnel management is the most challenging variable in maintaining current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) across the life cycle of drug manufacture, safety, and supply. A standard operating procedure (SOP) outlines agreed-upon instructions for personnel training and instructions for maintaining systems, machines, documents, and records in a qualified state to produce safe products. This...

Technical

Online water bioburden analyzers (OWBAs) are analytical instruments providing real-time or near real-time measurement of bioburden in purified water systems.1

  • 1Cundell, A., O. Gordon, N. Haycocks, et al. “Novel Concept for Online Water Bioburden Analysis: Key Considerations, Applications, and Business Benefits for Microbiological Risk Reduction. American Pharmaceutical Review 16,...
Technical

The process life-cycle model, as discussed in the US FDA guidance on process validation, is a significant change in how we view validation.1

  • 1US Food and Drug Administration. “Guidance for Industry. Process Validation: General Principles and Practices.” January 2011.
Features

As biopharmaceuticals have become a major part of the pharmaceutical industry, we have witnessed significant transformations in product development, strategy, technology, and operations. This ongoing transformational process was the main theme of the fourth annual

Features

The latest ICH guideline, ICH Q12,1

  • 1International 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.
Special Reports

When faced with large-scale disruptive events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the emergency and business continuity plans of drug manufacturers and event-specific actions of health authorities may not always be sufficient to prevent shortages of critical medical products. However, early, transparent engagement with health authorities is a powerful opportunity for drug manufacturers to...

Technical

Over the years, the roles and responsibilities of engineering and quality/validation personnel for commissioning and qualification (C&Q) activities have evolved. Now more than ever, commissioning and qualification approaches based on quality risk management (QRM) principles rely heavily on engineering and the application of Good Engineering Practice (GEP) to provide documentation for the...

Features

Virtually every ISPE member has at least one story to tell about how health authority inspections or the review and approval of regulatory applications have affected their efforts to supply critically needed medications to patients globally. Although these stories may emphasize the considerable challenges that ISPE members face, they also frequently identify great opportunities for innovation...

Features

Annex 2 is the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) document by the Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme (PIC/S) addressing manufacture of biological medicinal substances and products for human use. This article shares information about Annex 2 and ISPE’s submitted comments to the draft revision of Annex 2 that was released for public consultation in September 2019.

Features

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...

Technical

The internet has led to an increase in e-commerce of prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medicinal products; one in four adults has purchased medicines online.1

  • 1Orizio, G., A. Merla, P. J. Schulz, and U. Gelatti. “Quality of Online Pharmacies and Websites Selling Prescription Drugs: A Systematic Review.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 13, no. 3 (September 2011): e74....
Features

The US FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) Case for Quality program promotes a risk-based, product quality–focused, and patient-centric approach to computerized systems. This approach encourages critical thinking based on product and process knowledge and quality risk management over prescriptive documentation-driven approaches.

InTouch

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...

Technical

We propose a method for demonstrating content uniformity in the context of variables sampling and relate this to the acceptance criteria and probability of passing the USP CU test. We demonstrate that a variable sampling plan with 99.4% coverage between 83.5% and 116.5% of label content is approximatively equivalent to (and even stricter than) the 95% probability of passing the USP...

Technical

This paper was written by members of the BioPhorum Operations Group CPV and Informatics team and widely reviewed across the BPOG collaboration. As such, it represents the current consensus view of process verification subject matter experts in the biopharmaceutical industry, but does not represent the procedural details of any individual company. It is designed to be informative for industry...