In 2016, FDA published the Q7 cGMP Guidance for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients. It outlines best practices for everything from quality management issues, personnel, buildings and facilities, equipment and recordkeeping, to validation, change control, complaints and recalls. While it provides very useful information to stakeholders, in …
On January 22, 2013, FDA published its final rule on cGMP requirements for combination products under 21 CFR Part 4. Specifically Part 4.4 provides two mechanisms for combination product manufacturers to comply with the cGMP requirements: either by complying with all the cGMP requirements of …
Earlier this month the FDA recognized the drug inspectorates of Ireland and Lithuania for purposes of the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA), and in March of this year, the agency recognized the drug inspectorates of Greece, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Romania. Indeed, it was last October …
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in two complaints (here and here) filed last week in federal court, is seeking permanent injunctions to prevent two stem cell clinics from marketing stem cell products without FDA approval. Specifically, a permanent injunction is being sought against US Stem …
Late last month, CDER’s Office of Pharmaceutical Quality (OPQ) published a MAPP (Manual of Policies and Procedures #5310.3) outlining its policy for granting or denying expedited reviews of NDA and BLA Prior Approval Supplements (PAS) that involve chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) changes overseen by …
Last year, the President signed into law the Food and Drug Administration Reauthorization Act (FDARA) to revise and extend the user fee programs for drugs, medical devices and biosimilar biological products. Section 902 of FDARA requires FDA to publicly report, annually, information related to inspections …
It has been two years since FDA published its draft guidance on Data Integrity and Compliance with cGMP, with much fanfare and some legitimate criticism from stakeholders, particularly criticism regarding some overarching assertions that the agency made that are difficult to justify on the basis …
Back in 2015, FDA stated its intention of initiating a voluntary quality metrics reporting program (a cornerstone of FDA’s framework for building quality into drug products) and, in July of that year, announced the publication of a draft Quality Metrics Guidance. We blogged about the …
On October 31st, FDA made its long anticipated announcement recognizing the first European drug regulatory authorities capable of conducting inspections of manufacturing facilities that meet FDA requirements. The eight countries that were announced are: Austria, Croatia, France, Italy, Malta, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The …
Puerto Rico has been a hub of pharmaceutical manufacturing for some time, but in the aftermath of hurricane Maria (and Irma), that has changed – at least for now. Without power in most of the island, but more importantly, without employees who can get to …
On Monday, August 28th, FDA announced the outlines of a long overdue policy change on stem cells. Based on Dr. Gottlieb’s statements in the FDA press release, it appears to have two prongs. First, the agency announced a crackdown on stem cell clinics that claim …
According to a European Medicines Agency (EMA) press release issued on August 23, 2017, the FDA, the European Commission (EC), and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recently signed a new confidentiality commitment that allows the FDA to share non-public and commercially confidential information, including trade …
This was FDA’s recent admonition to ChemRite CoPac, Inc. (ChemRite), in a Warning Letter issued on June 29, 2017. Apparently the manufacturer of several over-the-counter oral rinses and oral moisturizing drug products uses the same equipment to manufacture numerous non-pharmaceutical materials, including an industrial car …
In late June, Pacira Pharmaceuticals informed the FDA, the European Medicines Agency, and Health Canada that the company had filed a notice with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, advising of its intent to discontinue all future production of DepoCyt® due to “…persistent technical issues …
On June 23, 2017 FDA published a notice in the Federal Register entitled: “Submission of Proposed Recommendations for Industry on Developing Continuous Manufacturing of Solid Dosage Drug Products in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing; Establishment of a Public Docket”. This notice relates to a workshop FDA hosted on …
