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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 UK’s statutory scheme revision for branded medicines

October 20, 2023 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by Giuliana Miglierini

The amendment of the statutory schemeregulating the increase in pricing and consequent clawback payments of branded medicines proposed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) of UK’s government attracted the strong criticism of the pharmaceutical industry. The proposal aims to supersede the current scheme, established in 2018 by The Branded Health Service Medicines (Costs) Regulations. UK’s framework for pricing and clawback payments is completed by the 2019 voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access (VPAS). Under the current framework, should a pharmaceutical company decide to opt out and not to join the voluntary scheme, then it becomes automatically subject to the statutory one. The current VPAS scheme, which in its original form dates to 1957, will end in December 2023. The DHSC is thus negotiating a new deal with the industrial counterparts to be effective starting 1 January 2024. Negotiations on the voluntary scheme are independent from the consultation on the statutory scheme, claims the DHSC.

The main features of the proposal

The statutory and voluntary schemes are administered by the DHSC on behalf of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The so received clawback payments from the pharmaceutical industry are then annually back allocated to each of the four countries on an agreed basis. According to the DHSC’s proposal, the ongoing negotiation should result in the two schemes – statutory and voluntary – continuing to operate in a complementary way. Should the negotiation on the voluntary scheme close without results, then the statutory scheme would continue to apply from 2024 onwards to all branded medicinal products. “With negotiations ongoing, there cannot currently be a default assumption of continuing alignment with any potential voluntary scheme provisions”, wrote the government. The proposed reform of the statutory scheme is comprehensive of an increase of the allowed annual growth rate, which is expected to impact on the back payment percentages. A revision of current exemptions from scheme payments should also occur.

A structure similar to that of the current statutory scheme should be used to manage these amendments, while a new lifecycle adjustment should be put in place to rebalance the payment percentages referred to medicines at different stages of their product lifecycle. As for unbranded biological products, which should be always prescribed by brand name according to MHRA’s guidance, the government aims to clarify that the statutory scheme should be applied to all biological medicines, irrespective to the fact they are marketed or not under a brand name. The government’s goal is to achieve a balance between these three objectives, “in a way that is consistent with supporting both the life sciences sector and broader economy”.

Comments from the ABPI

According to the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries (ABPI), there is no equivalent in the world to UK’s voluntary scheme. The version agreed for the period 2018-2023 is based on a 2% per annum rise in pricing: pharmaceutical companies are called to pay back to the NHS rebates on their sales on all expenditure above the capped limit. On their side, the current voluntary scheme also requires the DHSC and NHS England to improve medicines access environment over the period 2019-2023.

ABPI mentions the dramatic rise in payments linked to the unforeseen circumstances of increased post pandemic NHS demand, which is posing major challenges for the UK life science sector. The members of the association more specifically criticise the cap growth mechanism, as well as the proposed lifecycle adjustment. The top management of leading pharma companies operating in the UK also expressed their views (read more, on the European Pharmaceutical Review).

More details on the proposals UK’s government confirmed its commitment to working with the pharmaceutical industry to facilitate the development of medicines in the UK and to support rapid NHS’s patients access to innovative medicines. The current form of the statutory scheme allows for a growth rate of 1.1% (nominal) per year for sales of branded medicines subject to the scheme. The payment percentage for 2023 and all subsequent years was set in April 2023 at 27.5%. The main exemptions refer to sales of pharmacy only and general sales list medicines, small companies with under £5 million sales to the NHS each year, sales of low-cost presentations costing less than £2, and parallel imports. The continuation of the policy of broad commercial equivalence between the statutory and voluntary schemes is the criterion chosen by the DHSC to protect the stability and efficacy of both: payment percentages in the statutory scheme would be thus comparable (but not necessarily identical) to those in the voluntary scheme. The new payment percentages in the statutory scheme proposed for 2024 would be based on a higher allowed growth rate of 2% (nominal). According to the DHSC, the maintenance of the current growth rate of 1.1% per year, in the absence of a newly agreed VPAS, would result in an effective decrease in allowed growth for most companies and might give rise to “a commercial environment for the life sciences sector that may not fully reflect the objective of supporting the sector and the broader economy”. On the other hand, an increase above 2% per year may lead to a unsustainable budget pressure on the NHS. As for the exemptions, the proposal aims to include in the statutory scheme some additional exemptions from payment which are currently part of the VPAS, namely referred to sales of medicines containing a new active substance (NAS) for 36 months from the date of their first marketing authorisation. According to the consultation document, this would incentivise companies to launch innovative medicines in the UK more rapidly than in other countries. An exemption from scheme payments for centrally procured vaccines (CPVs) is also part of the proposed package, and it would include vaccines for national immunisation programmes recommended by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), procured by a central government body, or managed by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) or a successor body. The third exemption to be included in the statutory scheme refers to payments for exceptional central procurements (ECPs). The measure would cover medicines related to purposes of emergency preparedness (i.e. national stockpiles) conducted by a central government body, or managed by UKHSA or a successor body. The lifecycle adjustment Innovative medicines are typically characterised by higher prices at launch, to then lower it while approaching the end of intellectual property protection. According to the DHSC’s proposal, initial prices are typically above the opportunity cost to the NHS, and older medicines would in general also benefit from greater price competition from generics and biosimilars. In some instances, states the document, this competition would be insufficient, thus resulting in prices not low enough to reflect the later stage in the product’s lifecycle. This especially applies to single supplier markets, where no competition at all is available. The proposal aims to overcome the current one-size-fits-all approach to the statutory scheme, and to introduce additional payments for older products with no competition, or a flat, lower payment for older products in more competitive markets. The so-generated additional income would then be used to reduce the headline payment percentage paid by newer products. According to the consultation document, these latter ones would refer to any product where the active substance has been marketed in the UK for less than 12 years.


EMA’s consultation on draft Q&As on remote certification of batches by QP

June 3, 2022 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by Giuliana Miglierini

The last two years saw the implementation of a high degree of regulatory flexibility as a mean to respond to the many challenges posed by the travel bans consequent to the pandemic. After this “experimental” phase, regulatory authorities are now considering the possibility to allow the routine implementation of some remote procedures in the field of pharmaceutical production.

It is the case of the remote certification/confirmation of batches by the Qualified Person (QP): after the publication of a draft guideline in the form of Q&As (EMA/INS/169000/2022), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has launched a short public consultation which will remain open up to 13 June 2022. Comments may be sent by email.

The guideline offers EMA’s point of view on the requirements for the physical attendance at the authorised manufacturing site applying to QPs in order to routinely run the remote certification of batches, outside emergency situations. The document has been drafted by the GMDP Inspectors Working Group; it is composed of four questions and their relative answers and it addresses some considerations arising from the experience gained on the application of the guidelines for human and veterinary medicines issued during the pandemic. These last ones were elaborated in cooperation between the European Commission, the Coordination group for Mutual recognition and Decentralised procedures – human (“CMDh”), the Inspectors Working Group, the Coordination group for Mutual recognition and Decentralised procedures – veterinary (“CMDv”) and EMA.

The Agency also warns that the contents proposed by new Q&As’ guideline may be subject to any other interpretation by the European Court of Justice, which is the ultimate responsible for the interpretation of the EU legislation.

The contents of the Q&As

The routine remote certification or confirmation of batches may in future apply to the activities carried out by the QPs within the EU and European Economic Area (EEA), with reference to manufactured or imported human and veterinary medicinal products and investigational medicinal products.

The first answer clarifies that it could be possible for the QP to routinely run remote batch certification or confirmation only if this type of practice is accepted by the relevant national competent authority (NCA) of the member state where the authorised site is located. To this instance, it should be noted that some NCAs may request some specific requirements to authorise the routine remote certification procedure, for example with reference to the location of the QPs.

Should the remote certification be allowed on a routine basis, specific requirements should be met in order to validate this practice, starting from its full compliance to the EU legislation and EU GMP guidelines.

The answer to question 2 specifies that all activities should take place in an EU/EEA country, and that the time spent by the QP at the authorised site “should be commensurate with the risks related to the processes” hereby taking place. To this instance, it is of paramount importance the ability to demonstrate that the QP acting from remote has maintained full knowledge of the products, manufacturing processes and pharmaceutical quality system (PQS) involved in the remote certification/confirmation of batches. That also means that the QP should be highly reliant on the PQS of the authorised site, and this would be only possible by spending an adequate time on-site to verify the adequacy of the PQS with respect to the processes of interest. The pharmaceutical quality system should also include details of all the procedures used for the routine remote certification/confirmation of batches. The possible use of this type of remote procedure by the QP should be also clearly mentioned in the technical agreement governing the relationship between the authorisation holder and the QP, which should also specify all cases requiring the presence on-site of the QP. A robust IT infrastructure should be in place to guarantee the remote access of the QP to all the relevant documentation in the electronic format needed to achieve bath certification/confirmation, according to the provisions described in Annex 16 to the GMPs (Certification by a Qualified Person and Batch Release). To this instance, presence on-site should be always considered to solve issues that cannot properly be addressed from remote. The demonstration of the presence on-site of the QP falls under the responsibility of the Manufacturing/Importers Authorisation (MIA) holders.

These are also responsible to make available to the QPs all the hardware and software needed to guarantee the remote access to the relevant documentation (e.g. manufacturing executions systems, electronic batch records system, laboratory information systems etc.) as well as batch registers. All IT systems used for remote batch release should comply with the requirements of Annex 11 to the GMP (Computerised Systems).

On the same basis, it should be possible for NCAs to contemporaneously access for inspection all documentation and batch registers involved in routine remote certification/confirmation at the authorised site of batch release. MIA holders should also guarantee the QP is the only allowed person to access the batch certification/confirmation function and batch register, that the transferred data are complete and unchanged, and that an adequate system for electronic signatures is in place.

Question 3 simply clarifies that some members states may have some specific requirements about the country of residence of the QP, for example it should be the same where the authorised site involved in the remote certification procedure is located.

The last question discusses technical requirements linked to IT-security and data integrity for remote access, a type of procedure presenting a higher intrinsic risk in comparison to the same activities carried on-site. Here again, the main reference is Annex 11; all equipment and software used for remote certification of batches should always reflect the current technological developments.

Among the suggestions made by the Q&A draft guideline is the precise identification of all hardware transferred off-site to the QP, that should be inventoried and kept updated. Hard disks should be encrypted, and ports not required, disabled.

Attention should also be paid to the configuration of any virtual private network (VPN) used by the QP to improve the security of the connection to the IT infrastructure of the authorised site and to prevent unauthorised accesses. Authentication should be based on recognised industry standards (e.g. two-factor or multifactor authentication, with automatic date of expiry). The transfer of data should be secured by strong transport encryption protocols; assignment of individual privileges and technical controls falls under the responsibility of the MIA holder


Consultation on the reform of the European pharmaceutical legislation

November 27, 2021 , ,

In November 2020, the Commission published a Communication on a Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe. The Pharmaceutical Strategy identifies flagship initiatives and other actions to ensure the delivery of tangible results: https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/default/files/human-use/docs/pharma-strategy_report_en.pdf As part of the implementation of the strategy, the Commission is evaluating the general pharmaceutical legislation and assessing the impacts of possible changes in the legislation as described in the relevant inception impact assessment.

This consultation aims to collect views of stakeholders in order to support the evaluation of the existing general pharmaceutical legislation and the impact assessment of its revision. A summary on the outcome of the public consultation will be published by the Commission services on the ‘Have your say’ portal. The Commission’s questionnaire is under consideration by our Bureau members and the link is as follows: https://forms.office.com/r/EUHkxBN3Sk. The deadline to participate in this consultation call is the 10th December. 

We thank you for your participation.


Draft guidelines, open for consultation

August 13, 2021 , , , , , , ,

ICH guideline Q13 on continuous manufacturing of drug substances and drug products

This guideline describes scientific and regulatory considerations for the development, implementation, operation, and lifecycle management of continuous manufacturing (CM). Building on existing ICH Quality guidelines, this guideline provides clarification on CM concepts, describes scientific approaches, and presents regulatory considerations specific to CM of drug substances and drug products.

This guideline applies to CM of drug substances and drug products for chemical entities and therapeutic proteins. The principles described in this guideline may also apply to other biological/biotechnological entities.
It is applicable to CM for new products (e.g., new drugs, generic drugs, biosimilars) and the conversion of batch manufacturing to CM for existing products.

Consultation dates: 29/07/2021 to 20/12/2021
Open Consultation file (Click here)

Guideline on core SmPC, Labelling and Package Leaflet for advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) containing genetically modified cells.

This guideline describes the information to be included in the summary of products characteristics (SmPC), labelling and package leaflet for advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) containing genetically modified cells. This applies to allogeneic or autologous, including viral vector modified and genome edited cells.

Consultation dates: 30/07/2021 to 31/10/2021
Open Consultation file (Click here)