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A new member within EIPG


The European Industrial Pharmacists Group (EIPG) is pleased to announce the Romanian Association (AFFI) as its newest member following the annual General Assembly of EIPG in Rome (20th-21st April 2024). Commenting on the continued growth of EIPG’s membership, EIPG President Read more

The EU Parliament voted its position on the Unitary SPC


by Giuliana Miglierini The intersecting pathways of revision of the pharmaceutical and intellectual property legislations recently marked the adoption of the EU Parliament’s position on the new unitary Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) system, parallel to the recast of the current Read more

Reform of pharma legislation: the debate on regulatory data protection


by Giuliana Miglierini As the definition of the final contents of many new pieces of the overall revision of the pharmaceutical legislation is approaching, many voices commented the possible impact the new scheme for regulatory data protection (RDP) may have Read more

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The FDA warns about the manufacture medicinal and non-pharmaceutical products on the same equipment

November 4, 2022 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by Giuliana Miglierini

A Warning Letter, sent in September 2022 by the US FDA to a German company after an inspection, addresses the possibility to use the same equipment for the manufacturing of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical products. The FDA reject this possibility, that is considered a significant violation of cGMP.

The letter addresses the lack of process validation for the manufacturing of over-the counter (OTC) drugs and of qualification documentation proving acceptance criteria were met and the process was under control. Deficiencies were reflected in the batch records missing important pieces of information. Aspects pertaining cleaning validation were also found critical.

The requests of the FDA

The Warning Letter asks the company to provide the FDA with a full qualification programme of the equipment and facility. This should include a detailed risk assessment for all medicinal products manufactured using shared equipment. Plans are also needed on how to separate the manufacturing areas for pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical productions.

Furthermore, the program for cleaning validation should be reviewed to include at least (but not limited to) drugs with higher toxicities or potencies, drugs of lower solubility in their cleaning solvents and that may result difficult to clean. Maximum holding times before cleaning and swabbing locations for areas that are most difficult to clean should be also provided. A retrospective assessment of the cleaning process has to be included in the required CAPA plan; change management for the introduction of new manufacturing equipment or a new product should be also discussed.

The FDA also addressed many other violations, such as the lack of robust laboratory controls, identity testing of incoming raw materials including active ingredients (APIs), and the inability to demonstrate the respect of minimum USP monograph specifications and appropriate microbial limits for drug manufacturing. Management and controls on data integrity were also found deficient.

The European perspective

In the EU, the possibility to use the same equipment and premises for the manufacturing of both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical products can be referred to the provisions set forth by Chapter 3 (Premises and Equipment) of the EU GMPs.

The document clearly states that the “premises and equipment must be located, designed, constructed, adapted and maintained to suit the operations to be carried out. Their layout and design must aim to minimise the risk of errors and permit effective cleaning and maintenance in order to avoid cross-contamination”.

The application of Quality Risk Management principles is used to assess the specific risk of cross-contamination and the consequent measures to be put in place. Dedicated premises and equipment may be needed in some cases, especially if the risk cannot be adequately controlled by operational and/or technical measures, the product has an unfavourable toxicological profile, or relevant residue limits cannot be satisfactorily determined by a validated analytical method. Attention should also be paid to the positioning of equipment and materials, so to avoid confusion between different medicinal products and their components, and to guarantee the correct execution of process controls. Particular provisions are needed in the case dusty materials are used, also with respect to cleaning validation.

All cleaning procedures should be available in written form, designed to allow for an easy and thorough cleaning (including drains, pipework, light fittings, ventilation points and other services). In the case of exposed materials, the interior surfaces of the premises should be smooth and easy to clean and disinfect.

All documentation needed to support the above mention requirements should be prepared according to Chapter 4 (Documentation) of the European GMPs.

EMA’s Guideline on shared facilities

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) published in 2014 a guideline on setting health based exposure limits for use in risk identification in the manufacture of different medicinal products in shared facilities.

Threshold values expressed in terms of Permitted Daily Exposure (PDE) or Threshold of Toxicological Concern (TTC) are the key parameters to be used to run the risk assessment. The so determined threshold levels for APIs can also be used to justify carry over limits used in cleaning validation. EMA’s guideline discusses how to address the determination of the PDE, also with respect to specific types of active substances (e.g. genotoxic, of highly sensitising potential, etc.)

The WHO guidelines

The World Health Organisation released in 2011 its GMP guideline Annex 6 (TRS 961) on the manufacturing of sterile pharmaceutical products. Clean areas are the location of choice for such productions. High-risk operative areas for aseptic manufacturing are classified in Grade A, with Grade B representing their background zones. Grade C and D areas are reserved to less critical steps of the production process.

A frequent and thorough sanitation is important, coupled with disinfection with more than one biocide and/or a sporicidal agent, as appropriate. The effectiveness of the cleaning procedure should be closely monitored to exclude the presence of contaminants, both in the form of vital and not vital particulate.

The guideline specifically mentions the case of preparations containing live microorganisms (such as vaccines), that can be prepared in multiuser facilities only if the manufacturer can demonstrate and validate effective containment and decontamination of the live microorganisms. To transport materials, the conveyor belt should be continuously sterilised as a requirement to pass through a partition between a Grade A/B and a processing area of lower air cleanliness.

A “Comparison of EU GMP Guidelines with WHO Guidelines” was published by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to support the understanding of differences between the two approaches, and with a special emphasis to the alleged higher costs of implementation and compliance to EU GMPs.

Analysing the requirements relative to premises and equipment, they aim to guarantee the suitability of rooms to the intended tasks, minimise the risk of failure and cross-contamination and ensure easy cleaning and maintenance. According to the BMZ, EU’s and WHO’s requirements are the same, even if the WHO guideline is more detailed in some aspects (to this instance, the BMZ document was published prior to the release of the new Annex 1 to the GMPs). The theme of equipment is also discussed in other WHO guidelines, i.e. the “WHO good manufacturing practices: starting materials” and the WHO guidelines on transfer of technology in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Cleaning and sanitation should be addressed according to the provisions set forth by the ISO 14644 family of technical standards. Cleaning validation is also treated in Appendix 3 of the WHO TRS 937 Annex 4. Cleaning validation should be used as the main tool to ensure the removal to pre-established levels of all residues of an API of a product manufactured in any equipment with direct contact to the surface, so that the next product manufactured using the same apparatus would be not cross-contaminated.

According to the BMZ, indications on qualification, process validation and cleaning validation contained in Annex 15 of EU GMPs (paragraph 6) should be integrated with the contents of the ICH Q2 guideline. The only two points of the EU GMPs not covered by the WHO’s guide refer to the allowance that toxic or hazardous substances can be substituted under special conditions for the validation process and the indication that “Test until clean” is not considered an appropriate alternative to cleaning validation.


Consultation open on the ICH Q13 guideline on continuous manufacturing

October 8, 2021 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by Giuliana Miglierini

The new ICH Q13 guideline on the continuous manufacturing of drug substances and drug products aims to harmonise at the international level this rapidly growing sector of pharmaceutical production, providing manufacturers with a flexible approach for the implementation of innovative technologies and ensuring compliance to Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP) specific to continuous manufacturing.

The draft guideline was released in July 2021 and is currently subject to the public consultation phase, which will remain open for comments until 20 December 2021. Comments should be forwarded by e-mail to EMA at the address [email protected]. The process to develop the new guideline started in November 2018 with the publication of the final Concept paper on continuous manufacturing.

The new ICH Q13 guideline is expected to support the adoption of continuous manufacturing systems by the pharmaceutical industry, thus providing innovation of manufacturing methods and availability of more robust and efficient processes, in order to increase options available in case of public health needs and to implement new approaches to Quality Assurance. The new provisions shall also contribute to the reduction of risks for operators, and to resource consumption and waste generation.

The key principles

The guideline on continuous manufacturing builds upon the existing ICH Quality guidelines to specifically address the production of drug substances and drug products for chemical entities and therapeutic proteins, and the conversion of batch manufacturing to continuous manufacturing modalities for existing products. It may also apply to other biological/biotechnological entities. The discussion takes into consideration both scientific and regulatory elements, with respect to the entire lifecycle management of the continuous manufacturing process.

This manufacturing technique is characterised by the continuous feeding of input materials into the productive flow, the transformation of in-process materials within, and the concomitant removal of output materials from the flow. A special attention is paid by the guideline to continuous manufacturing systems in which two or more unit operations are directly connected.

More in particular, Part I of the document addresses general aspects of continuous manufacturing not specific to the technology, dosage form or molecule type under consideration. Many illustrative examples are provided in Part II (Annexes) to support the implementation of the provisions to different operative setups.

Among available modes to run continuous manufacturing, the guideline discusses the combination of traditional approaches inclusive of units operating in a batch mode and integrated continuous manufacturing unit operations, the situation in which all unit operations are integrated and operate in a continuous mode, and the possibility the drug substance and drug product unit operations are integrated across the boundary between drug substance and drug product to form a single continuous manufacturing process.

Part I: How to approach continuous manufacturing

The main part of the guideline is composed of six different sections aimed to provide a general vision of possible issues found in continuous manufacturing, under complementary points of view. The Introduction describes the guiding principles that inspired the document, including scientific and regulatory considerations to be taken in mind for the development of a new continuous manufacturing system.

Section 2 focuses on key concepts, among which is batch definition: according to the guideline, the ICH Q7 definition of a batch is applicable to all modes of continuous manufacturing, for both drug substances and drug products. Different options are available to define the size of a batch produced by continuous manufacturing, i.e., in terms of quantity of output material, quantity of input material, and run time at a defined mass flow rate. Other approaches to batch definition can be also considered upon justification, on the basis of the characteristics of the single process. For example, a batch size range can be established by defining a minimum and maximum run time.

Control strategy, changes in production output and continuous process verification are the key scientific principles addressed in Section 3, being the last item a possible, alternative approach for validating continuous manufacturing processes.

Principles described in ICH Q8-Q11 have always to be taken into consideration while developing the control strategy, using a holistic approach to properly consider aspects specific to continuous manufacturing.

The guideline takes into consideration all items which are part of the control strategy, starting from the state of control, according to ICH Q10, to provide assurance of continued process performance and product quality. Mechanisms should be in place to evaluate the consistency of the operations and to identify parameters outside the historical operating ranges, or signs of drifts/trends indicative the process could be at risk of falling outside the specified operating range. Knowledge of process dynamics is also important to maintain the state of control in continuous manufacturing. To this instance, a useful parameter may be represented by the characterisation of the residence time distribution (RTD). Furthermore, process dynamics should be assessed over the planned operating ranges and anticipated input material variability using scientifically justified approaches.

The guideline provides detailed examples of material attributes that can impact various aspects of continuous manufacturing operation and performance, with specific reference to a solid dosage form process, a chemically synthesised drug substance process, and a therapeutic protein process. Not less important is the design of equipment and the integration to form the continuous manufacturing system. Examples are provided as for the design and configuration of equipment, connections between equipment and locations of material diversion and sampling points.

Process analytical technologies (PAT) developed according to ICH Q8 are suited to implement real-time automated control strategies aimed to promptly detect transient disturbances that may occur during the continuous process. In-line UV flow cells, in-line near-infrared spectroscopy and in-line particle size analysis are possible examples. PAT’s measurements also support traceability of all materials that enter the process and diversion of the potential non-conforming ones.

The different definitions of batches in continuous manufacturing impact also on change management activities. The optimisation of the process may require changes of different parameters; examples discussed by the guideline include changes in run time with no change to mass flow rates and equipment, increase mass flow rates with no change to overall run time and equipment, increase output through duplication of equipment (i.e., scale-out), and scale up by increasing equipment size/capacity.

The above-mentioned critical aspects are also considered in Section 4 as part of the regulatory expectations the development of a continuous manufacturing process should fulfil. A sequential narrative description of the manufacturing process should be included in the Common Technical Document (CTD) and supported by suitable pharmaceutical development data. The description of the continuous manufacturing operational strategy should include operating conditions, in-process controls or tests, criteria that should be met for product collection during routine manufacturing, and the strategy for material collection and, when applicable, diversion. Other information also includes a description of how the material is transported from different pieces of equipment, a flow diagram outlining the direction of material movement through each process step, details about the locations where materials enter and leave the process, the locations of unit operations and surge lines or tanks, and a clear indication of the continuous and batch process steps. Critical points at which process monitoring and controls (e.g., PAT measurement, feedforward, or feedback control), intermediate tests, or final product controls are conducted should be also provided, together with a detailed description of any aspects of equipment design or configuration and system integration identified during development as critical with respect to process control or product quality. Sections 5 and 6 provide, respectively, a Glossary of terms used in continuous manufacturing and a list of useful references.

Part II: Five Annexes to illustrate different fields of continuous manufacturing application

Each of the five Annexes that form Part II of the ICHQ13 guideline addresses issues specific to the application of continuous manufacturing to the target domains typical of the pharmaceutical manufacturing process.

Annex I refers to drug substances for chemical entities. It provides an example of a process containing both continuous and batch operations, where the segment run under continuous conditions consists of a series of unit operations for reactions, liquid phase extraction, carbon filtration, continuous crystallisation, and filtration. A second intermediate synthesised in batch mode enters the continuous flow to participate to the second step in the synthesis of the final drug substance.

Annex II describes a possible implementation of continuous manufacturing for the production of a solid dose drug product.

Here too, a flow diagram exemplifies the different steps of the process, including the blending of different materials followed by direct compression of the tablets and a final step of batch-mode film coating. The guideline also addresses the use of PAT technologies to monitor blend uniformity and trigger tablet diversion. The batch size range is defined on the basis of a predefined mass flow rate.

The manufacturing of therapeutic protein drug substances (e.g., monoclonal antibodies) is discussed in Annex III. This type of process may be used to produce intermediates for the manufacturing of conjugated biological products, and it could be integrated partially or in full of the continuous manufacturing system. The process described in the guideline includes a perfusion cell culture bioreactor with continuous downstream chromatography and other purification steps to continuously capture and purify the target protein. As regard to viral safety and clearance, the guideline specifies that the general recommendations of ICH Q5A remain applicable also for continuous manufacturing; alternative approaches need to be justified.

Many continuous processes integrate in the same flow the manufacturing of both the drug

substance and drug product. This type of circumstance is approached in Annex IV with reference to the production of a small molecule tablet dosage form. The two parts of the overall process may differ under many aspects, e.g., the prevalence for liquid or solid input material addition, different run times, different frequency of in-process measurements. This impacts on the choice of the equipment and the design of locations of in-process measurements and material diversion.

Annex V discusses some possible examples for the management of transient disturbances that may occur during continuous manufacturing, potentially affecting the final quality of the product. Three different approaches are provided, based on the frequent/infrequent occurrence of the disturbance and on its amplitude and duration with respect to predefined acceptance criteria.