Quality/GMPs

Latest News


Digitalization of QbD Risk Assessments

The digital transformation of quality-by-design assessment workflows can improve efficiency, reduce human errors, and facilitate integration within a much broader digital ecosystem.

Digitalization of QbD Risk Assessments

Subjectivity in Quality Risk Management

The authors discuss subjectivity in the ICH Q9 (R1) guidance document.

Subjectivity in Quality Risk Management

Phase-appropriate Compliance for Cell and Gene Therapies

Understanding how to apply phase-appropriate GMPs is crucial for achieving successful regulatory approval.

Phase-appropriate Compliance for Cell and Gene Therapies

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What are current good manufacturing practices (cGMPs)? Where did they come from? What are the actual "practices" described in the Code of Federal Regulations, 21 CFR. If you are new to the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industries, you may enter your first "GMP Training" session without much context or perspective. A set of arcane rules is presented; you were never taught these in science classes.

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Good manufacturing practices (GMPs) are manufacturing guidelines for ensuring the safety and efficacy of drug products and medical devices. The GMPs are legal regulations, based on the United States Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. But, why do we need the GMPs? Shouldn't we, as knowledgeable individuals, groups, and companies, be able to figure out how to produce drugs and devices that are safe and effective?

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GMP is the acronym for Good Manufacturing Practice. The GMPs represent a set of regulations that were promulgated as a final rule by FDA in 1978 and intended to ensure the safety and efficacy of the nation's drug products. The GMPs, as we know them today, are the result of over a century of actions by industry and reactions by government and consumer groups to bring guidance and controls to the food and drug industry, resulting in a safe supply of food and medicines.

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There continues to be much interest within industry and FDA about the future of the GMPs. Discussion groups have been spawned within professional organizations and at FDA to reevaluate the aging GMPs and associated guidance documents to ensure that the government does not impede technological progress, focuses its resources effectively, and upholds its mandate to protect the public.

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Idon't know about you, but I found Senator John Kerry's assertion that President Bush was to blame for the US flu vaccine shortage quite laughable, but only until it became clear Kerry intended to continue railing about it throughout his final campaign thrust. As political tactics would have it, of course there was no mention of the Comprehensive Child Immunization Act of 1993, back-door price controls, and the resultant US dependence on external vaccine suppliers.

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EVERYONE KNOWS THAT ROCHE WAS, AND ARGUABLY STILL is, the driver of Genentech's success. But not everyone knows that Roche owns a majority stake in the biotech behemoth, as it does in Japanese powerhouse Chugai. And that's by design. Roche's management has long held that the best way to derive good and lasting results from its smaller partners is to let them do what they do best and leave them alone while they do it. That philosophy has served them well, especially when revenues of some of their codeveloped and comarketed blockbuster products are considered. Just two, Genentech's Herceptin (trastuzumab) and Chugai's Epogin (epoetin beta), have earned billions.

Wyeth BioPharma has identified cycle-time reduction as critical to customer responsiveness and the success of commercial and pipeline products. In formulating a plan of attack, the company focused on two aspects of cycle time: the global planning process and disposition cycle times.

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The "due diligence framework" is an efficient process. But efficient is not the same as quick and easy. There are no shortcuts. The framework minimizes resource commitments and disruptions to ongoing programs and helps each side learn what it needs to know. In six steps, it converts the typical due diligence root canal into a painless filling.

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American patients are more educated about health issues than any prior generation, thanks to the Internet. I read somewhere that doctors, from family physicians to specialists, are amazed at how well prepared their patients are when they show up for an appointment — with documentation in tow after researching conditions, medications, and treatments. So much so that the doctors are stressed out from trying to answer all their questions, complete their exams, and get everyone out the door in the amount of time the insurance companies say is "reasonable."