Quality/GMPs

In March, the US Food and Drug Administration released a new draft guidance, along with its guidance agenda for the year.

Neotropix, Inc. (Malvern, PA, www.neotropix.com), a biotechnology company dedicated to the development and commercialization of virus-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and other diseases, received a warning letter (http://www.fda.gov/foi/warning_letters/b6308d.pdf) on March 23, 2007, citing deviations from good laboratory practices (GLP) regulations governing the proper conduct of nonclinical studies as published under 21 CFR Part 58.

A tremendous amount of analytical testing is required to support a biopharmaceutical product from discovery, development, and clinical trials, through manufacturing and marketing. Numerous methods are used to fully characterize large molecules because of their complexity-characterizing them is significantly more difficult than it is for small molecules. Biopharmaceuticals are produced via living systems, i.e., E. coli, yeast, or mammalian cells, which require additional testing matrices.

The challenge will be to design a system that is flexible, yet appropriate, for the broad range of biological products and the varying quality control capabilities of different manufacturers.

Process monitoring ensures that the process performs within the defined acceptable variability that served as the basis for the filed design space.

Scale-up issues leading to long development times and deviations in the commercial facility is a critical challenge.

The biopharmaceutical industry has gained a lot of experience in monitoring glycosylation, but still has a lot to learn about the structure–function relationship.

The US Food and Drug Administration (Rockville, MA, www.fda.gov) commemorated its 100th anniversary in 2006 as America's premier public health agency aimed at protecting and promoting public health.

The United States Pharmacopeia (USP, Rockville, MD, www.usp.org) and the UK's National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC, Hertfordshire, UK, www.nibsc.ac.uk) are seeking participants in a study of analytical methods used by the industry to characterize and quantify oligosaccharides.

All contributors to the process should have a clear understanding of their capacity and see their work activities as a priority, regardless of where they fall on the critical path.

Disposables are no longer a mistrusted new technology; they're seen as a potential solution to everyday problems.

Although IP due diligence is relevant to virtually any transaction between biotech companies, a detailed investigation into IP assets is particularly critical to M&A transactions.

An underlying theme of FDA's drug safety program is that new discoveries in biomedical science can detect risk issues earlier in clinical development.

ABSTRACT

A series of ICH guidances are encouraging industry to adopt quality-based approaches for achieving the "desired state" of drug and biotech manufacturing: more efficient and flexible operations that can reliably produce high quality therapies with less regulatory oversight.

The recent FDA decision that meat from cloned animals is safe for human consumption seems logical enough. A protein is a protein. But even if we can eat such meat, it doesn't necessarily make economic or ecological sense to do so.

Utility patents are granted to anyone who invents any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, composition of matter, or any new improvement thereof.

The pharmaceutical industry is well aware that FDA is trying to take a risk-based approach to enforcing the current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) regulations. This approach is driven by an economic reality: FDA simply does not have the resources to inspect every facility every other year. The organization doesn't even have the resources to inspect facilities every three years. Likewise, it is not cost-effective for our companies to carry out a complete, documentation-oriented revalidation for every process change, regardless of its significance or risk.

All of the primary unit operations for cell culture and purification had scores greater than the action threshold.

The HSV-1 and HVP-2 titers were determined by the inoculation of test solutions into Vero cell cultures and calculated using the Reed M?ench method.

How much do regulatory agencies know about nanotechnology or microfluidics? Yesterday, the answer was probably, "not much." Tomorrow, it may be "a lot." The reason is that new technologies push the agencies to expand their expertise.

FDA is encouraging broader use of pharmacogenomic data by offering manufacturers early informal advice.

The prospect of any cost savings has been fueling efforts to establish a pathway for follow-on biopharmaceuticals.

Vagueness in the ICH Q2A and Q2B guidelines necessitates effective protocol design and data analysis. For specificity (detection in the presence of interfering substances), the goal is statistical differences with meaningful implications on assay performance. Linearity (results directly proportional to concentration of analyte in the sample) is typically demonstrated via least squares regression. Accuracy (difference between measured and true values) usually is presented as a percent of nominal. Precision analysis is vital because it supports claims of accuracy and linearity. A well-designed experiment and statistically relevant methods will facilitate method validation in accordance with ICH guidelines.

In various races in the November elections, voters supported stem cell research. Now, will they prepared to fund it?

Recently, 22 vice presidents of biopharmaceutical operations met in Boston to develop the first operational roadmap for their industry. This special executive-level consortium was organized to discuss two key questions.

A key to bolstering FDA and its mission is securing balanced and consistent funding.

Conducting an analysis of the 4 Ms-man, machine, methods, and materials-enables companies to identify the true root causes of deviations.

The many benefits of disposable technologies, such as significant savings in time, labor and capital, as well as ease of scalability and flexibility, have led to the growing trend of adopting disposable technologies in bioprocess manufacturing processes.

Biopharmaceutical processes typically require a significant investment in equipment-often a substantial obstacle for start-up companies. The risk of drug development failure is often high, further limiting access to the required capital. Flexibility and lower capital outlays are required not only by start-up companies, but also by research organizations with multiple product lines and by companies requiring quick capacity increases. Disposable technologies offer the highest potential for these companies to meet their business requirements. With lower capital requirements and increased flexibility, disposables are an important part of these companies' risk management strategy.