ICH Q7 refers to the need to establish the impurity profile for an Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API): “An impurity profile describing the identified and unidentified impurities present in a typical batch produced by a specific controlled production process should normally be established for each API. The impurity profile should include the identity or some qualitative […]
Since the implementation of the CARES Act reporting requirement, the question continues to be asked: Is it really a requirement? The answer is yes, and now it is no longer recommended, but is stated as “should” in the newly published Final version of the Guidance for Industry (GFI) “Reporting Amount of Listed Drugs and Biological […]
This morning, when I read a Decision and Order issued by the United States Court of Federal Claims regarding a motion that was granted in part, denied in part, and filed on behalf of a pharmaceutical company and the FDA, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Now, I must state […]
In 2011, the FDA published the draft “Food and Drug Administration Report on Good Guidance Practices: Improving Efficiency and Transparency” (here) that established the way that the FDA would prioritize, develop, and release guidances in draft or final, and identified two levels of guidances, a so-called Level 1 and Level 2. A Level 1 guidance document is one […]
The FDA’s action is being taken to address a safety issue associated with the need to reformulate drug products that contain carbomers manufactured with benzene. The goal is to expedite and provide a clear and less burdensome path than might otherwise be required under the applicable Scale Up and Post Approval Changes (SUPAC) guidances for […]
On December 27, 2023, the FDA released a revised draft version of its October 2023 guidance titled Quality Considerations for Topical Ophthalmic Drug Products: Guidance for Industry. This revised draft, of the same name, outlines most of what was covered in the October draft guidance; however, it does include some clarifications and some additional information. The […]
According to an updated post on the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) webpage, there were twelve Biologics License Applications (BLAs) approved for products that had orphan drug (OD) status. Just to cite a few: Two were for treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD). One was for enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) in adult and […]
Yesterday, the FDA issued the first revision of the Guidance titled Presenting Quantitative Efficacy and Risk Information in Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Promotional Labeling and Advertisements (here). This Guidance covers the following four topics: Providing quantitative efficacy or risk information for the control group, when applicable; Presenting probability information in terms of absolute frequencies, percentages, and relative […]
Bring up the recently updated and finalized EU Annex 1 – Manufacture of Sterile Medicinal Drug Products (here) in polite pharmaceutical water cooler conversation and a frequent topic that comes up is the Contamination Control Strategy (CCS) language. Buzzwords abound for a “holistic”, “global”, or “wholesale” CCS to be incorporated into all elements of aseptic […]
The EU has continued its advancement of initiatives and intentions to combat the drug shortage problem. The latest communication is titled “Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Addressing medicine shortages in the EU” (here). This is a deep dive […]
