Regulatory/GMP Compliance

How the authors used design of experiments and quality by design principles to develop a hydrophobic interaction chromatography step.

Developing a process validation strategy early in clinical development is critical for a successful validation program.

Many companies acknowledged that Western regulatory standards are tougher than those in China.

The personalized medicine bandwagon is on a roll, offering a new model for calculating reimbursement of high-cost biotech therapies. Strategies for identifying patients who will respond to a certain therapy, as well as those most likely to suffer adverse events, promise to improve healthcare quality while eliminating waste and inappropriate spending. Interventions based on individual genetic characteristics may have limited sales, but support higher prices and less costly clinical research methods.

Congress postpones debate on follow-on biologics while adopting new policies likely to reshape drug development

Contrary to popular belief, the out-of-specification problem started years before the Barr Decision.

The industry needs a clear regulatory pathway for the approval of biosimilars.

PAREXEL Consulting (Boston, MA) has hired three senior GMP consultants based in Europe with the hope of helping its clients address complexities of European Union directives in areas such as manufacturing regulations, quality, and safety.

Regulatory agencies have evolved along with the biotechnology industry to define quality standards.

Federal regulation of biologics began more than 100 years ago with the enactment of the Biologics Control Act of 1902. That act required licensing of establishments to manufacture and sell vaccines, sera, antitoxins, and other similar products in order to prevent deaths from contaminated vaccines, as had recently occurred with the diphtheria antitoxin.

Multivariate data analysis can help biotech manufacturers deepen their process understanding.

The new legislation authorizes the use of fee revenues for drug safety oversight and assessment throughout a product's lifecycle.

The US Food and Drug Administration's Nanotechnology Task Force (www.fda.gov/nanotechnology/ nano_tf.html) has released a report recommending the agency develop guidelines and take other steps to address the benefits and risks of products, including drugs and medical technology, that use nanotechnology.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA, Rockville, MD, www.fda.gov) issued a revised draft guidance on July 20 to help ensure that the safety, purity, and potency of biologics products is not compromised as a result of innovative, flexible manufacturing arrangements.

With the advent of high-resolution mass spectrometers and highly sensitive MS instruments, vaccine characterization has entered a new phase.

Any endpoint considered appropriate to support approval, whether a surrogate or a clinical endpoint, must be supported by substantial evidence of effectiveness.

The corruption of China's food and drug sectors is not limited to one man. Likewise, real reform will require the efforts of many.

The main testing and regulatory provisions of the FOB legislation reflect multiple trade-offs between the demands of innovators and generics firms.

The US Pharmacopeia (Rockville, MD, USP, www.usp.org) recently announced that the implementation period for its USP­–NF general notices statement requiring all manufacturers to conform to recently revised residual solvent standards in General Chapter <467> has been extended from July 1, 2007 to July 1, 2008.

The US FDA (Rockville, MD, www.fda.gov) recently announced the availability of a draft guidance, entitled, Q10 Pharmaceutical Quality System.

In late June and early July, the US Congress moved forward on three important bills affecting the biopharmaceutical industry, related to follow-on biologics, the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), and the 2008 FDA budget.

The FDA issued MedImmune, Inc. (Gaithersburg, MD, www.medimmune.com), a warning letter for violating the agency's manufacturing rules and held off approving the company's influenza vaccine for use in children younger than age five until the problems are resolved.