The recently enacted ominous spending bill approved by Congress in late December directs the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to establish advanced manufacturing centers for excellence and an advanced manufacturing technologies designation program.   The omnibus spending bill was signed by President Biden on 27 December and authorizes $3.5 billion in budget authority for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in FY 2023, a 6.5% increase compared to its 2022 bud...

The International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) announced that “excellent progress” has been made over the past year in advancing guidelines in the areas of pharmaceutical quality, safety and efficacy, including the adoption of the widely awaited guideline on continuous manufacturing (CM).   These achievements were announced on 22 November following its meeting held in Inchon, South Korea. The meeting was held in parallel with meetings of ICH’s ten working groups and...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepts a wide variety of applications into its Emerging Technologies Program (ETP), and is not just focused on continuous manufacturing, said Joel Welch, associate director for science and biosimilar strategy in the agency’s Office of Biotechnology Products.   “I think that sometimes there is a misperception that advanced manufacturing is just about continuous manufacturing,” said Welch who provided an update on the ETP at the...

Applicants that used continuous manufacturing (CM) technology to bring their products to market waited less time before approval after submission compared to batch manufacturing products, according to results from a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) audit published in the International Journal of Pharmaceuticals .   Authors from the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) said these manufacturers had a potential estimated increase in revenue due to the ...

Several industry trade associations are asking for more clarity on the International Council for Harmonisation’s (ICH) Q13 guideline on continuous manufacturing, including what constitutes a state of control for a continuous manufacturing process, the scope of the guideline, and the definition of a batch size. One manufacturer said the guideline places too much emphasis on non-conforming material, which has not been a significant issue in continuous manufacturing.   Th...

The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’S) efforts to encourage the industry’s adoption of advanced manufacturing is bearing fruit, according to a new update from the agency, noting robust interest from industry in participating in the agency’s Emerging Technologies Program (ETP).   In addition, “significant funding” from Congress has helped fund more research in advanced manufacturing, wrote Michael Kopcha, director of the Office of Pharmaceutical Quality in the FD...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a new paper  to help shed light on how therapeutic proteins can be produced safely on a continuous manufacturing line.   Continuous manufacturing “is still a novel concept for therapeutic proteins” and more “tangible” examples are needed to implement the program, acknowledged FDA in the report. Further, there are “few published studies” addressing viral inactivation methods for these products.   However, it’s im...

The International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) on Tuesday issued its Q13 guideline on continuous manufacturing, making a draft available for public comment.   The long-awaited draft was soon expected, according to an FDA official who gave an update on the status of the guideline at a 14 July CMC Strategy Forum sponsored by the California Separation Science Society (CASSS). (RELATED: Long-awaited ICH continuous manufacturing guideline coming soon , Regulatory Foc...

The International Council for Harmonization (ICH) Q13 guideline on continuous manufacturing is expected to be released for public comment soon, as the US pharmaceutical industry continues slow but steady adoption of this mode of manufacturing.   Cyrus Agarabi, a reviewer in FDA’s Office of Biotechnology Products in the Office of Pharmaceutical Quality, updated attendees on the status of the ICH Q13 guideline at the 14 July CMC Strategy Forum sponsored by the California...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday issued draft guidance laying out quality considerations for continuous manufacturing (CM) for new and generic drugs.   The 27-page draft guidance is part of FDA’s effort to encourage the adoption of continuous manufacturing and covers quality considerations for solid oral small molecule drugs and builds on feedback from a public consultation launched in 2017.   According to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and C...

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...