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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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EDQM, the RTEMIS scheme for remote inspections and new application forms for CEPs

April 9, 2022 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by Giuliana Miglierini

Starting in 2022, the Real-Time Remote Inspections (RTEMIS) programme, established by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM) as a pilot in November 2020 to provide a tool to face travel restrictions due to Covid-19, has turned permanent. Companies applying for Certificates of suitability to the monographs of the European Pharmacopoeia (CEPs) may thus receive a notification for a RTEMIS inspection, as a part of the activities of the EDQM. The Directorate is responsible in cooperation with the participating agencies, for assessing the GMP compliance and CEPs applications relative to manufacturing sites of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). The final GMP certificate issued from the NCA incorporates, following the positive closure of a remote inspection clearly states that the inspection was performed as a “distant assessment”.

Companies can adhere to the RTEMIS programme on a voluntary basis; the tool will complement the other modalities available to the EDQM to inspect manufacturers of pharmaceutical active ingredients, i.e. on-site inspections and documentation-based GMP assessment. As for on-site inspections, RTEMIS is also subject to the payment of fees. According to the Directorate, remote inspections cannot replace the on-site ones in terms of value and effectiveness, but many prove useful to assess GMP compliance for companies which have been already inspected. The RTEMIS scheme will thus form the third pillar for the supervision of GMP compliance of API manufacturers registered in the EDQM’s CEP scheme.

To qualify for an RTEMIS inspection, the concerned company should make available a suitable IT infrastructure and hardware to support the remote interaction with the EDQM’s team. To this regard, the notification letter will also include details about the expected infrastructural requirements; interested companies can contact the EDQM HelpDesk for further information.

The pilot phase to validate the RTEMIS scheme for remote inspections ran by the EDQM with reference to several manufacturing sites in India, selected on the basis of their GMP compliance history and a risk assessment, and which participated to the project on a voluntary basis. According to EDQM, suitable Corrective and Preventative Action Plans were developed by the inspected companies to address minor and major deficiencies identified during the inspections, leading to a degree in GMP conformity that the Directorate indicates as “satisfactory”.

Key factors for remote inspections

The pilot phase of the RTEMIS programme closed at the end of 2021 and led to the identification of several key factors to be respected in order to guarantee the success of remote inspections. During this period, RTEMIS inspections ran by the EDQM with the support of European Economic Area (EEA) inspectorates.

At a minimum, an appropriate IT infrastructure and hardware at the inspected site should be available to support a stable connection with the EDQM’s inspectors. During the preparatory phase of the inspection great attention should be paid to choose a suitable web conference application, running connectivity tests before the established date for the inspection, as well as a secure platform for the sharing of all relevant documentation (often in advance of the inspection). The selection of the IT tool to be used can benefit of the initial support from the EDQM’s IT department. Another important feature that should be always kept in mind refers to the possibility to run parallel sessions of discussion between the inspectors’ team and the staff and experts of the inspected company.

In remote inspections, participants are often located far apart, for example EDQM’s inspectors based in Strasbourg (F) may interact with an inspected company in China or India. The great difference in time zone requires a great flexibility on both sides to set the schedule for connections. Flexibility is also needed to face the many challenges posed by remote inspections, often requiring approaches significantly different from the traditional ones used for on-site inspections. Digital connected tools such as smart glasses may be used, for example, by the staff at the inspected site to allow inspectors to perform a real-time virtual tour of the plants.

New forms for CEPs applications

The EDQM also updated all forms to be used to apply for the release of Certificates of Suitability to the European Pharmacopoeia monographs. The forms to be used in case of a new application, revisions and sister files are available at the dedicated page of the EDQM’s website

The revision is intended to facilitate the transfer of data the EDQM’s new IT tools, which have been implemented starting 1 April 2022. The new forms also better reflect data available within the EMA’s SPOR – Organisation Management Services (OMS) system, including company details, names and addresses. The EDQM recommend communicating other additional data linked to the ones present in EMA’s website, i.e. the ORG_ID and LOC_ID.

 Applicants should also insert localisation data for their manufacturing sites, in the form of GPS coordinates. To this instance, the internationally recognised WGS 84 system should be used, using latitude and longitude (with the + and – symbols) expressed in degrees to at least five decimal places, as described in policy document PA/PH/CEP (10) 118.

Tables detailing the marketed medicinal products containing a certain active substance and the respective list of accepted Active Substance Master Files/Drug Master Files (ASMFs/DMFs) have been also updated, in order to better reflect the commercialisation history of the products and the quality assessments already performed.

EDQM also advises companies to use the form “change of contact details” as the preferred tool to inform the Directorate about the change of the contact person for one or more CEP dossiers (ref. policy document PA/PH/CEP (10) 86).

EDQM’s website is also undergoing a complete revision, aimed to improve the user experience and to ensure a quick and easy access to all relevant information. The new version of the site will be accessible from the same web address www.edqm.eu and is expected to be online in April 2022.  


EMA’s Q&A on the integration of EudraGMDP and OMS

January 14, 2022 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by Giuliana Miglierini

A new step in the integration at the central level of data needed to manage regulatory procedures is going to be activated on 28 January 2022: starting from this date, member states’ national competent authorities (NCAs) shall use the data available in EMA’s Organisation Management System (OMS) to issue all type of certificates regulated under the EudraGMDP database, for human, veterinary and experimental medicines, as well as active substances (API).

A Questions & Answers guideline on the integration of EUdraGMDP and OMS has been released by EMA; the document reflects the points of discussion which arose in the course of a webinar organised by EMA to better inform about the new modalities for the release of the certificates and other services provided through the OMS system, and how to face the change request process.

The new procedures to uniquely identify the interested parties

As discussed few weeks ago on this blog, the use of the OMS dictionary became mandatory for all centrally authorised products (CAPs) since 1st November 2021. The integration of OMS with EudraGMDP database is a specific requirement arising from the new Veterinary Medicinal Products Regulation ((EU) 2019/6), which will become fully applicable on 28 January 2022.

The new procedures refer to different types of certificates, including the Manufacturing and Importation Authorisations (MIA), the Wholesale Distributor Authorisations (WDA), GMP and GDP certificates and API Registration certificates. GDP certificates will maintain their current validity, with re-inspections to occur after 5 years at the latest. Any new GMP certificate/authorisation for Clinical trials issued after 28 January 2022 will be also impacted. CEP certificates of suitability issued by the EDQM fall out of the scope of EudraGMDP, and are thus not impacted.

Should there be two different organisations with the same legal address, each of them will have a distinct ORG ID in the system; a single organisation with two different locations will have two LOC IDs. Multiples ORG IDs will be generated for marketing authorisation holders (MAHs) located in one country and having subsidiaries in other countries, as the identification is specific to the single subsidiary/location. A particular case may be represented by India, where some plots are recognised as one address by National postal services. In that case, just one LOC ID will be available; on the contrary, should the plot be not recognised as a single address, different LOC IDs will be generated.

In case of a single warehouse for human and veterinary medicines for a single company with a single address, the OMS will only have 1 contact; in these instances, NCAs will select if the certificate applies to human or veterinary medicinal products.

In the case of transfer of the location under another organisation, the OMS system is provided with the technical functionality to move the location from an organisation to another. Nevertheless, advices EMA, the activation of this procedure requires a careful verification and validation of the supporting documentation in order to avoid breaking the business rules of both EudraGMDP and OMS.

Changes requests and Super users

Since the end of January, NCAs shall extract from the OMS database all data relative to the specific organisation (i.e. name and location address details, including the legally registered address).

It is thus of paramount importance that all interested parties which appear on documents recorded in EudraGMDP – i.e. pharmaceutical companies, contract manufacturing organisations (CMOs), importers and distributors, both EU and non-EU – shall verify the correctness of their data registered in the database prior to the submission of any new or updated application for manufacturing or wholesale distribution authorisation with national competent authorities.

Should the submission of a change request be needed, anyone among the interested parties may provide to file it with EMA. Change requests can be submitted starting from 28 January 2022; the requests have to be validated by EMA against the reference sources (e.g. Trade registry and Postal services) before the OMS Data stewards can proceed to change the data in the system.

The availability of the correct information is particularly important in the case of CMOs located in extra-EEA countries, and which may request inspections or need to update their GMP certificates. EMA’s advices companies to promptly liaise with their partners to manage in due time any change request needed to correct data recorded in the OMS.

The “Organisation Super users” can verify all of the users affiliated to their respective organization through the EMA’s Account management portal; they can also change the user roles and users affiliated at any point in time. EMA suggests companies to have at least two Super users, in order to guarantee one of them is always available and active. A single Super user can be affiliated with different organisations.

Other answers provided by the guideline

The Q&As guideline published by EMA consists of 87 questions and their corresponding answers. Question n°2 addresses the issue of the legal basis of GDP certificates for Veterinary medicines: as the new Regulation and its associated secondary legislative acts still do not include such a legal basis, EMA will update the GDP module of EudraGMDP after January 2022 in order to provide consistency in the approach. It shall thus be possible for NCAs to voluntary use the database to record GDP certificates for companies distributing veterinary medicines. The guideline also indicates that national competent authorities are prepared to the handle the new framework and can plan in advance activities needed in the near time to issue WDA and API Registration certificates for veterinary Organisation.

Even if the use of OMS is yet mandatory for CAPs only, the Q&As guideline indicates that NCAs need to ensure that the relevant organisations are available in OMS before submitting information into the system, both for CAPs and non-CAPs. The suggestion is thus to ensure that the OMS data is present and correct for all organisations/sites, even if its use in electronic application forms (eAF) is not mandatory for the time being.

Details of manufacturing sites such as buildings or plots are not registered in OMS, but they have to be included in the GMP certificate; this extra information will be inserted in the ‘Restrictions’ section of the certificate. There is no change to the procedures for the issuing of GMP certificates.

When a change to an organisation occur in the OMS, the dictionary part of EudraGMDP gets refreshed, but no change is reflected in the documents already issued unless there is a specific action on them. The synchronisation between the two databases occurs on the following business day after the change was registered.

In case of transfer of the company to a new location, the change has to be registered in the OMS before new certificates can be issued; according to the guideline, this should not represent a problem while the current certificate are still valid.

During the webinar some doubts have been expressed as for the possible confusion arising from the guidance document “Manufacturer organisations in the OMS dictionary” (EMA/465039/2018), which divides OMS data responsibility for manufacturers and MAHs/Applicants. This document shall be reviewed by the Agency, says EMA’s guideline.


EMA’s OMS has turned mandatory for centrally authorised products

December 17, 2021 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by Giuliana Miglierini

Since November 1st, 2021, the use of the Organisation Management Service (OMS) became mandatory for all Centrally Authorised Products (CAPs). The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has published a Questions & Answers document to better explain the new procedures, that will impact the source of data to be used to exactly identify the organisations filing CAP procedures with EMA.

The progression in the implementation of the new provisions

The use of the OMS system is now compulsory for all organisations filing CAP submissions, with the final goal to improve the interoperability of data and the overall efficiency of the regulatory process. Should applicants lack to use OMS data, the relevant applications will be filtered out of the EMA’a validation procedure and sent back to the applicant for remedial action.

The OMS data management service was launched in 2015, and applied to electronic application forms (eAFs) since 2017, and then to many other types of procedures. The availability of OMS data may prove critical to allow the smooth implementation, in early 2022, of the new Clinical Trial Information System (CTIS) and of the Clinical Trial application procedure; during the next year, EMA plans to integrate the OMS also with the Union Product Database (UPD), Variation applications (via DADI project) and Manufacturing/Importers Authorisations (MIAs), Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) inspections and Wholesale distribution authorisations (via EudraGMDP).

Validated OMS data also need to be used with reference to the “applicant” and “contact person affiliated organisation” sections of pre-submission applications. With the new eAF release (eAF V.1.25.0.0) for Medical Devices, the compulsory use of OMS data will also refer to the “Device Manufacturer”, “Notified Body” and “Companion diagnostic” sections.

Remediation in case of lack to use OMS data includes the insertion of all relevant information in the OMS database before updating and re-submitting the application form. Should applicants not provide sufficient responses, the application may be completely or partially invalidated.

Discussions are undergoing to further extend the use of OMS data also to National Procedures (NP); according to EMA, this may be turn inevitable in the next couple of years, as current eAF forms will be progressively replaced by web-based application forms (through the DADI project), being the latter the same for centrally and nationally authorised products by design.

Any question on the use of the OMS can be sent to EMA’s e-mail addresses specified in the Q&As document.

What is new for applicants

The use of OMS master data (the so-called “OMS Dictionary”) is now mandatory for both Human and Veterinary centralised procedures, namely those making use of eAFs (initial marketing authorization applications, variations applications, and renewals) and well as other procedures (see the Q&A document for more detail). The name and contact details of the contact person are not OMS data, and do not need to be registered with the system; historical organisational data do not have to be registered as well.

To manage a CAP procedure, applicants now need to first register their organisation data with the OMS, or request the update of data already registered by submitting a “Change Request” before filing of the regulatory application.

All requests will be assessed by EMA OMS Data stewards, that will also update data in the systems if the requirements are met. This validation step is fundamental to avoid duplication of data, as all information is checked against the same reference sources (i.e. national business registry, DUNS and/or GMP/MIA certificates) and standardised according to the OMS rules agreed with the Network. The Service Level Agreement provide for EMA to process 75% of OMS requests within five working days and 90% within ten working days. Changes will become visible in the eAF the day after they had been processed, and only upon active refresh of the relevant lists.

The business process which makes use of OMS data is usually responsible to submit such a request, but it can arise also form other parties. More specifically, EMA advises the user who needs to use the data should take the lead in updating it. This may prove relevant, for example, to ensure all manufacturer organisations are included in the OMS Dictionary as needed.

EMA warns applicants to consider the turnaround time for processing the OMS change request when planning to submit applications: even if the application forms will not immediately change and everything may appear as usual, the background process has been now modified and may need additional activities to validate the change requests.

Changes in the eAF templates are planned to remove the free text fields for CAP applications, but until the new models will be available, the free text field for “organisations” should not be used. Planned availability and entry into force of the new versions are December 2021 for Human procedures (v1.26.0.0) and January 28th, 2022 for Veterinary procedures (in line with the veterinary regulation).

How to access the OMS

EMA’s data management system refers to four different domains of data, including the substance, the product, the organisation and referential (SPOR) master data in pharmaceutical regulatory processes.

The SPOR portal provides access to the respective four specific areas of service (e.g. SMS for substances, PMS for products, OMS for organisations and RMS for referential). SPOR is the mechanism used by EMA to implement the ISO IDMP standards, as required by articles 25 and 26 of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No. 520/2012. Organisation master data, even if not covered by ISO IDMP, have been considered by EMA, National Competent Authorities and Industry in Europe to be essential in order to make the master data operating model work.

Applicants need to create an EMA account with SPOR user roles to conduct additional tasks, such as requesting changes to data, translating data or managing user preferences. Already granted credentials to access other active accounts for any EMA-hosted website or online application can also be used. OMS data can now no longer be captured in other EMA databases.

OMS master data include the organisation name and address, labelled by mean of unique identities (ID) (i.e. ‘Organisation_ID’ and ‘Location_ID’). Different categories of organisations are possible (i.e. ‘Industry’, ‘Regulatory Authority’ or ‘Educational Institution’), and of different size (i.e. ‘Micro’, ‘Small’, or ‘Medium’). The role played by a certain organisation is context-specific and cannot be defined within the OMS.