The United States Food and Drug Administration and the Indian Government join forces in “Operation Broadsword”. No, it’s not a trailer for an action thriller, it’s a serious collaboration between two governmental entities to limit the import and sale of illicit drugs to consumers, detailed in FDA’s news release on February 18, 2020 (here). The […]
Our own Keith Webber originally provided very detailed information and helpful hints in his August 2019 blog (here) regarding FDAs transition of certain NDAs to BLAs under the BPCI Act. So, although this may not be “new” news, we think it’s worth a quick trip down memory lane, as the implementation date quickly approaches. Let’s […]
February 14, 2020 could be called a red letter day in the world of Rx-to-OTC switch. After a long period of drought, FDA announced that they have approved the Rx-to-OTC switch of three prescription drugs. Please see the announcement here. The three drugs are: Voltaren Arthritis Pain (diclofenac sodium topical gel, 1%) for the temporary […]
The FDA Guidance for Industry, Investigating Out‑of-Specification (OOS) Test Results for Pharmaceutical Production, was published in October 2006 (here). The pharmaceutical industry has had about 14 years to learn how to comply to this guidance. A quick survey of recent Form 483s and Warning Letters would indicate that there is still much to be learned […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
