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 This revised draft, of the same name, outlines most of what was covered in the October draft guidance; however, it does include some clarifications and some additional information.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 […]
The bulk of microbiology attention in the drug manufacturing world is laser focused on sterile drug products and the myriad steps needed to aseptically manufacture them. That is certainly with good reason as those drug products carry the highest patient risk should there be microbial contamination. One aseptic manufacturing misstep and the consequences could be […]
In an article published in Fierce Pharma today (here), Kevin Dunleavy pointed to a congressional letter (here), penned by Congresswoman Lisa McClain, Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services, that questions the long lag time for the FDA and its advisory committee to come to the conclusion that phenylephrine, as an oral decongestant, does […]
On the heels of additional reports of methanol poisoning from ingestion of hand sanitizers, the FDA issued a new final guidance titled Policy for Testing of Alcohol (Ethanol) and Isopropyl Alcohol for Methanol (here) for immediate implementation. The guidance applies to the use of pharmaceutical alcohols (PAs) (ethanol and isopropyl alcohol) by pharmaceutical manufacturers, outsourcing […]
The FDA notice (here) states: “[T]he over-the-counter (OTC) monograph annual forecast is a nonbinding list, issued each year, of planned monograph activities that FDA intends to initiate over the ensuing 3 years.” When the new monograph system went into effect, it was designed to reduce time to decision making by eliminating the lengthy comment and […]
If you watch the news at all, you know about this but, more importantly for anyone that has taken phenylephrine, the lack of efficacy should have been very noticeable, especially if you have ever taken pseudoephedrine. The FDA has just issued a statement (here), clarifying the Advisory Committee’s recommendation regarding the lack of efficacy of […]
This morning, the FDA published the OTC Monograph request Fee rates for FY 2024 in a pre-publication Federal Register notice (here); these rates cover fees for OTC monograph order requests (OMORs) for which there are Tier 1 and Tier 2 requests. The distinction for the two classifications of OMORs are a Tier 1 request (usually […]
The industry as a whole rejoiced on Friday with the publication of the new NDSRI guidance from the FDA, previously discussed here. Now that we all have had more time to carefully read and absorb the details posted by the FDA in the guidance and on the corresponding webpage, many will discover that there are […]
Unless you’ve been living under a (pharmaceutical) rock, you are aware of the struggle that both FDA and industry are having with Nitrosamines impurities in pharmaceutical products. As a reminder, APIs are at risk of forming nitrosamine drug substance-related impurities (NDSRIs) when they contain secondary amines or dimethyl tertiary amines. We have published many blogs […]
I remember working part-time as a pharmacist when I was at FDA and there were only a few prescription oral contraceptives that were available for dispensing at that time. If you had asked then (1984) if I thought that there would ever be an OTC version of an oral contraceptive available, I would have bet […]
