Cover: Shortages of essential medicines around the world have been an ongoing concern for patients, caregivers, and regulators and have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many regulators have instituted requirements for reporting potential or actual drug shortages. To further minimize drug shortages, regulators in the United States and France recently established requirements for risk management on drug shortages avoidance. Such requirements could spread beyond these two countries, especially because risk management for product availability is included in the revision of the ICH Q9(R1) guideline “Quality Risk Management.”
Feature: As the demand for accelerated access to medicines expands globally, the pharmaceutical industry is increasingly submitting regulatory applications in multiple countries simultaneously. As a result, Boards of Health (BoHs) are challenged with approving these applications in an accelerated timeframe and accommodating the submission of postapproval chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC) changes that pharmaceutical manufacturers submit after implementing improvements or optimizations.
Feature: The new European Commission GMP Annex 1 “Manufacture of Sterile Medicinal Products” and the equivalent Annex 2 from the World Health Organization (WHO) triggered a discussion in ISPE’s Germany/Austria/ Switzerland D/A/CH Aseptic Processing Community of Practice (CoP) Steering Committee about where to qualify air speed: “at working position” versus “at working level.” This article provides background knowledge from literature and data from experiments to enhance the discussion.
Highlights: On 7 March 2023, ISPE concluded the 2023 ISPE Aseptic Conference with a regulatory panel question and answer session. Attendees were invited to submit questions to the FDA representatives. This article offers highlights from the discussion.
Highlights: Annex 1, the European Union’s revised GMP requirements for the manufacturing of sterile medicinal products, will take effect on 25 August 2023. In this panel, experts involved in industry’s commenting of the draft versions of Annex 1 offered background information on how the document was developed and answered questions on its implementation.
Shortages of essential medicines around the world have been an ongoing concern for patients, caregivers, and regulators and have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many regulators have instituted requirements for reporting potential or actual drug shortages.1
Where has 2023 gone? The year is already three-quarters over. The 2023 ISPE Annual Meeting & Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, is just a few weeks away. And I will be...
For the past few months, ISPE Asia Pacific Affiliates and Chapters have been busy reconnecting with colleagues through in-person conferences. Collaboration, innovation, and technology are common themes; events also incorporate quality culture and excellence.
The healthcare field is being transformed by artificial intelligence (AI) in remarkable ways, providing never-before-seen chances to enhance the well-being of patients. And the use of AI is transforming the job market and bringing numerous benefits to both employees and employers.
Hubertus Rehbaum, PhD, is Chair of the Process Analytical Technology & Lifecycle Control Strategy (PAT-LCS) Community of Practice (CoP) Steering Committee. He’s been a member of ISPE for eight years. He first became involved through the Germany/Austria/Switzerland (D/A/CH) Affiliate when he joined as an Emerging Leader and helped co-host events for the group, which he said helped him...
Catherine Hall is Chair of the Investigational Products, North America (IPNA) Community of Practice (CoP) Steering Committee and is one of the authors of the ISPE Good Practice Guide: Investigational Medicinal Product Reverse Logistics – Good Returns and Reconciliation Practices. She has been a member of ISPE for 18 years.
Annex 1, the European Union’s revised GMP requirements for the manufacturing of sterile medicinal products, will take effect on 25 August 2023. In this panel, experts involved in industry’s commenting of the draft versions of Annex 1 offered background information on how the document was developed and answered questions on its implementation.
On 7 March 2023, ISPE concluded the 2023 ISPE Aseptic Conference with a regulatory panel question and answer session. Attendees were invited to submit questions to the FDA representatives. This article offers highlights from the discussion.
ISPE task teams created reports and a model to examine the challenges surrounding drug shortages, emergency preparedness, and the supply chain of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). This article outlines these initiatives.
The Executive Chair for this year’s Annual Meeting offers advice and shares what attendees can expect at the upcoming conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This article describes how ISPE GAMP® 5: A Risk-Based Approach to Compliant GxP Computerized Systems (Second Edition) and related GAMP Good Practice Guides can be effectively applied to help meet the requirements of the proposed European Union (EU) artificial intelligence (AI) regulation for qualifying GxP-regulated systems employing AI and machine learning (ML).
As the demand for accelerated access to medicines expands globally, the pharmaceutical industry is increasingly submitting regulatory applications in multiple countries simultaneously. As a result, Boards of Health (BoHs) are challenged with approving these applications in an accelerated timeframe and accommodating the submission of postapproval chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC)...
The new European Commission GMP Annex 1 “Manufacture of Sterile Medicinal Products” and the equivalent Annex 2 from the World Health Organization (WHO) triggered a discussion in ISPE’s Germany/Austria/Switzerland (D/A/CH) Aseptic Processing Community of Practice (CoP) Steering Committee about where to qualify air speed: “at working position” versus “at working level.” This article provides...
The biopharmaceutical industry must develop and implement innovative ways of working to be effective and efficient in the current healthcare ecosystem, in which high-quality medicines, adaptability, and assurance of supply are of critical importance. There are regulatory strategies and technologies emerging to address these challenges, but further progress must be made to fully harness the...
The ICH Quality Discussion Group (QDG) has recommended contemporizing the specification setting guidelines ICH Q6A and Q6B. This provides an excellent opportunity to update ICH Q6A/B to align and work in a complementary manner with the science-, risk/knowledge-based concepts in ICH Q8–Q12. The ISPE Pharmaceutical Quality Lifecycle Implementation (PQLI) Patient-Centric Specification working...
On 7 March 2023, ISPE continued its tradition of concluding the 2023 ISPE Aseptic Conference with a regulatory panel question and answer session. Attendees were invited to submit questions to the FDA representatives. This article offers highlights from the discussion.
