February 2020

14
Feb
Hand Holding a Chemical Solution Test-tube in a bio-Chemistry DNA Research Laboratory

CBER Publishes a Boatload of New Gene Therapy Guidances

  January was a gangbuster month for the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) with regard to publication of gene therapy (GT) guidance documents!  A total of six final guidelines and one draft guideline on GT products were issued.  These included: Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Control Information for Human Gene Therapy Investigational New Drug […]

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13
Feb
The Queens Guard

Looking at the Sentinel

FDA has announced the 12th Annual FDA Sentinel Public Workshop on April 20-21, 2020. (Please go here for the details.)  The Sentinel System is the largest multi site patient safety database in the world, and includes the Active Post-marketing Risk Identification and Analysis (ARIA) system mandated by Congress in the US Food and Drug Administration […]

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13
Feb
Fingerprint

What Is It? – Identity Testing Re-visited

In earlier blogs, we have written about specific technical items related to identity testing.  However, a review of Warning Letters published on the US FDA website for the months of December 2019 and January 2020, revealed three Warning Letters citing instances of failures to perform identity testing of active pharmaceutical ingredients prior to the manufacturing […]

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12
Feb
financial spreadsheet report

Promoting Confidence Through Product Quality – OPQ 2019 Annual Report

   The FDA’s Office of Pharmaceutical Quality (OPQ) is the group within the FDA that defines the quality requirements for all human drugs under its umbrella (filed as NDAs, ANDAs, BLAs, 351(k)/Biosimilars, and OTC products).  The group issued its 2019 Annual Report just this month (read the full report here) that includes a look back […]

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11
Feb
A man is completing the construction of a bridge. Build bridges, make connections and useful contacts. Improving and developing a business. New innovative solutions, growth and prosperity

FDA Provides Valuable Guidance on Bridge-Building for Combination Products

Three of FDA’s Centers (CDER, CBER, and CDRH) recently published a combined draft guidance for Industry entitled Bridging for Drug-Device and Biologic-Device Combination Products  (here).  This draft guidance provides the FDA’s current thinking on what manufacturers should consider when they wish to bridge the data from one such combination product to another combination product during […]

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10
Feb
Concept For Compliance For Services On Virtual Screen

The Importance of Sampling Plans for Uniformity of Dosage Testing

Numerous health authorities have cited companies for inadequate sampling plans of finished drug products. A recent 483 issued to a finished drug‑product firm specifically mentions the firm’s lack of a scientifically sound statistical sampling plan during production of all strengths of its drug product.  The FDA also mentions that this firm uses content uniformity results […]

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07
Feb
I think this is the right place

FDA’s Warning Letter Database – Has Any Progress Been Made Since the FDA Website Update?

Some time ago, we highlighted the issues that we had been facing searching FDA’s Warning Letter database in the new FDA website (FDA’s Website Re-Design – Did Something Get Left Behind?).  We wanted to give you an update as to where the current status of this is. Since drafting this post, we received some email […]

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06
Feb
Abstract Molecular Structure

Revisiting the “Novelty” of Novel Excipients

February 3, 2020 was the last day to comment on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) notice in the Federal Register on the Novel Excipient Review Program Proposal; Request for Information and Comments (here), which we reported on in a previous blog post (here).  In this notice, the FDA had proposed a pilot program related […]

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06
Feb
Chinese people wearing surgical mask sitting in subway

Coronavirus and Drug Shortage – A Tale of Two Crises

  On February 4, 2020, FDA issued a press release regarding the issuance of an emergency use authorization (EUA) (here) to allow for emergency use of a Coronavirus diagnostic panel by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-qualified labs across the country.  Previously, the panel’s use was limited to only CDC laboratories.  This additional step […]

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