The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday finalized its questions and answers guidance on complying with data integrity requirements under current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) for drugs and biologics. The guidance updates a draft version released in 2016 and has been revised to include additional information on the agency’s current thinking on data integrity to help drugmakers identify lapses and implement best practices to shore up any gaps in thei...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday released its priorities for addressing compounded drugs in 2018 after years of developing policies to improve its oversight. Background In recent years, FDA has worked to update its policies on compounded drugs in response to a 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak linked to the New England Compounding Center that led to at least 60 deaths and new requirements brought on by the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA) of 201...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week released a warning letter sent to Fresenius Kabi's active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing plant for liquid pharmaceutical products in Kalyani, India, for deficiencies that the company says will not impact product supplies. The warning letter, sent 18 December and following an eight-day inspection in April 2017, raises questions about Fresenius' failure to adequately address a sterility failure. FDA sa...

The European Commission on Wednesday launched a three-month public consultation ahead of its planned revision to good manufacturing practice (GMP) rules for sterile medicinal products contained in Annex 1 of Eudralex Volume 4 . The Commission says the revision was developed in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-Operation Scheme (PIC/S), and is meant to add clarity to Annex 1, which has been updated numerous times si...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday finalized guidance on medical device additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing. The guidance finalizes the draft version from May 2016 and largely keeps intact the recommendations and considerations laid out in the draft. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Monday that the guidance "will help manufacturers bring their innovations to market more efficiently by providing a transparent process for future submis...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday released a warning letter sent last Monday to China-based Guangdong Zhanjiang Jimin Pharmaceutical Co. after finding that one of the over-the-counter drugs the firm made was labeled as containing the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) hydrocortisone, but really the drug contained dexamethasone acetate. The company told FDA that the mix-up is the result of "a translation mistake," according to the warning letter...

Welcome to our Asia Regulatory Roundup, our weekly overview of the top regulatory news in Asia. CFDA Posts Draft Guidance on Postapproval Manufacturing Changes China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) is seeking feedback on its guidance on postapproval manufacturing revisions. The draft texts propose three tiers of changes to production processes and detail the regulatory steps companies need to take in each circumstance. Echoing draft guidance posted by the US...

Last month, the European Commission adopted two legal acts seeking to improve patient safety through good manufacturing practices (GMP) that ensure the highest quality of medicines for investigational and human use. One of the acts is an  implementing directive  that sets out principles and guidelines of GMP in medicines where the manufacture or import is subject to a manufacturing authorization ( see Article 40 of the Community code Directive (2001/83/EC) ). The ...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been encouraging the adoption of continuous manufacturing techniques for years, and several companies recently offered the agency some suggestions to refine its work around the developing technology. Background In contrast to batch manufacturing - where bulk materials are processed through multiple steps and subsequent batches must wait until the current batch is finished – continuous manufacturing allows companies to m...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday finalized its guidance detailing how drugmakers can participate in the agency's program to advance the use of emerging manufacturing technologies, such as continuous manufacturing or 3D printing. "In recent years, we've seen significant advances in the modernization of drug manufacturing, including shifts to continuous manufacturing and the first 3D printed drug. These advancements have led to improved products for pa...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned Chinese drugmaker Shandong Vianor Biotech for violating good manufacturing practice (GMP) requirements following an inspection of the firm's Linyi, Shandong facility last May. According to FDA, the firm's management admitted to falsifying analytical test results used to release a lot of its products to the US. In another instance, FDA says the firm reported that a batch of one of its products was within specification ...

The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Human Medicinal Products (CHMP) on Monday adopted an updated guideline on what manufacturing process information should be included in the marketing authorization application (MAA). The update, drafted in July 2015 , comes as there has been an increasing trend toward the outsourcing of manufacturing and more complex supply chains. The guideline "does not introduce new requirements" on authorized drugs, though t...