The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) admonished Sun Pharmaceutical Industries in a recent warning letter for a several good manufacturing practice (GMP) violations, including poor aseptic practices, inadequate cleanroom design and environmental monitoring and failure to keep manufacturing equipment clean.   These violations prompted FDA to place the firm on import alert on 7 December.   FDA inspected the firm’s Gujarat India facility from 26 April to 9 May 202...

Regulators make benefit-risk decisions based on the three pillars of quality, safety, and efficacy. CMC is applied throughout the product development spectrum from the initial synthesis of a molecule to reach a hypothetical target, to commercial scale up and beyond. This article helps the reader navigate the CMC regulatory landscape and understand the multiple considerations needed in order to devise a strategy which is efficient with respect to cost and time to approval. ...

The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of Pharmaceutical Quality (OPQ) lists both negative and positive trends in its new report assessing the state of pharmaceutical quality in FY2021. Among the setbacks are the increasing number of drug recalls, under-reporting of quality issues in field alert reports (FARs) and a growing number of products failing sampling tests.   On the bright side, OPQ said its New Inspection Protocol Project (NIPP) program has increa...

A handful of therapeutics have been approved specifically to treat COVID-19, reduce its severity, or prevent it entirely.   As of July 2022, those treatments include dexamethasone, Avigan (favilavir), Veklury (remdesivir) alone and in combination with Olumiant (baricitinib), Lagevrio (molnupiravir), Xevudy (sotrovimab), Regkirona (regdanvimab), Ronapreve (casirivimab and imdevimab), amubarvimab and romlusevimab (formerly BRII-196 and BRII-198), Actemra/RoActemra (tocil...

The US Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Pharmaceutical Quality (OPQ) issued a new Manual of Policies and Procedures (MAPP) describing the agency’s internal procedures for reviewing color additives and flavors in new drug applications, supplements, and Type IV drug master files and how these reviews will be coordinated with the Office of New Drugs (OND).   The 12-page MAPP identifies the responsibilities of quality assessors in conducting these reviews and addre...

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued a favorable opinion for bluebird bio’s Skysona (elivaldogene autotemcel), a gene therapy that treats early cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (CALD). Seven other medicines also received positive recommendations from the agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) during its May meeting.   Skysona’s status as an advanced therapy medicinal product (ATMP) means it was first assessed by EMA’s Committee for Advanced T...

Two papers in JAMA Internal Medicine highlighted separate, but important issues concerning the US Food and Drug Administration’s authority to modify package inserts and the effect of a recently shuttered agency initiative.   In a Viewpoint, Bishal Gyawali, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the Program on Regulation, Therapeutics and Law (PORTAL) research group at Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women’s Hospital suggested improving FDA’s authority to modify drug package...

Recon:   Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US New, Daily Coronavirus Cases Drop Below 100K For First Time In Months ( NPR ) U.S. Continues To Accelerate Vaccination Strategy ( NPR ) Seven coronavirus variants potentially similar to UK type have been detected in US: study ( The Hill ) ( NYT ) Fauci Awarded $1 Million Israeli Prize For 'Speaking Truth To Power' Amid Pandemic ( NPR ) Pentago...

The European Medicines Agency has released a draft guidance to assist drug developers using its Priority Medicines (PRIME) scheme to accelerate authorization of new therapies.   “Experience to date has shown that applicants face challenges to complete quality and manufacturing development and data requirements during development of products in early access approaches,” wrote EMA in the executive summary of the guidance.   Challenges for those developing breakthroug...

The Trump administration’s efforts to increase drug price transparency are likely to survive the transition to the Biden administration, according to a perspective piece published 13 January in the New England Journal of Medicine . Included in the Transparency in Coverage final rule, issued in late October 2020, the drug price transparency provisions aim to require that health insurers publish list prices and historical net prices for prescription drugs. The inform...

The European Commission (EC) has adopted its pharmaceutical strategy for Europe. The announcement follows a period of consultation earlier this year and meets the EC’s goal of finalizing the strategy by year’s end.   The strategy is not focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, but strategies and considerations included in the document were informed by the impact of the novel coronavirus in Europe and globally.  The primary objectives of the strategy fall into four categories. ...

A new white paper from the Friends of Cancer Research offers a blueprint for reimagining the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Accelerated Approval Program for drugs and biologics that treat serious and life-threatening illnesses. The white paper , released during the group’s annual meeting, recommends explicitly adding a more comprehensive risk-benefit assessment to the surrogate endpoints currently used as the basis for approval, a framework that would move the U...