GxP Lifeline

 

  • Elements of Effective Quality Agreements

    14 August, 2013 Steven Sharf, President and Principal Consultant, GMP Concepts

    Many GxP professionals are already familiar with the expectation of FDA and the requirement in the EU to have quality agreements with third parties and suppliers. Throughout this article, I will define what a quality agreement is, when one is needed, the 24 basics that factor into this critical document, and some things to avoid when drafting one. Finally, I will discuss alternate means of communicating quality expectations when a supplier will not agree to enter into a full quality agreement.

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  • Review of FDA Guidance "Codevelopment of Two or More New Investigational Drugs for Use in Combination"

    14 August, 2013 Seth A. Mailhot, Special Counsel, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

    On June 14, 2013, FDA issued the Guidance “Codevelopment of Two or More New Investigational Drugs for Use in Combination.” The guidance discusses FDA’s recommendations for developing an entirely new combination therapy where none of the drugs to be used in combination have been previously developed. FDA notes in the guidance that the recommendations do not apply to combination therapies involving previously developed drugs, or the combination of a new drug with a previously developed drug. While codevelopment has generally been centered in oncology and infectious disease, FDA’s guidance is intended to address codevelopment from a high-level, making it applicable to other diseases.

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  • MasterControl.Cloud

    5 September, 2013 Victor Gill, MasterControl Inc., Senior Product Manager of Cloud Solutions

    What exactly is Cloud? Or is it, The Cloud? Is it just me, or do no two people describe it the same way? As the product manager over the Cloud initiative at MasterControl, I hear these kinds of questions all of the time. With all of the advertising, mixed messaging, technical jargon, and promises of grandeur, it’s easy to see why so many consumers are confused. At its heart, the term Cloud has been a powerful marketing turn-of-phrase that has consolidated a large mix of technologies.

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  • SOP Training is Now “On-Line” But Are We Any More Compliant?

    17 September, 2013 Vivian Bringslimark, President, HPIS Consulting, Inc.

    Well, I’m told we are now more compliant with ensuring that only the most current SOP version is used for training. And yes, our Learning Management System provides us with curricula updates and “percent complete” and “percent overdue” notifications. LMSes and eDoc systems have given us efficient mechanisms to document that employees have completed their training curricula. But do they understand their procedures enough to perform them correctly back on the job? Just look at our human error deviations and training-related CAPAs. Are the numbers declining? According to an excerpt from the PDA’s Pharmaceutical Sci-Tech Discussion Group, there is “almost a 100% correlation between the percentage of read and understood SOPs and the number of compliance issues the company has.” (1) Has efficiency become the new metric for training and compliance? Using technology to read SOPs doesn’t guarantee learning transfer.

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  • Ten Points for Successful Use of TPLC Reports

    8 October, 2013 Maria Fagan, President, Regulatory & Quality Solutions LLC

    A Total Product Life Cycle (TPLC) Program ensures that quality is proactively designed into medical devices from concept to market, and during post market surveillance until device obsolescence.

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  • Innovation and the Quality Process

    8 October, 2013 Ken Peterson, Director of Quality and Consultation Services, MasterControl Inc.

    Thinking of new ideas and putting those ideas to practical economic use can be more of an art than a science. At times innovation sends a signal that is in opposition to quality. If we are constantly trying to solve problems and find solutions through effective investigation of failures, do we ever consider that the best solution is to ignore the past and invent the future? Those of us who have a wider view of what innovation should deliver seek entirely new approaches verses conventional problem-solving for cause. It’s not that analytical thinking is unnecessary but on occasion, a new solution unrelated to cause removal is warranted.

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  • Developing a Winning FDA Strategy for Clinical Drug Development

    8 October, 2013 Robert L. Kunka, Ph.D., The Kunka Group, Inc.

    The idea of interacting with the FDA is sometimes mysterious and unsettling for a pharmaceutical company. The average person finds it difficult to work with a large organization that they don’t understand. For example, large banks understand this and advertise themselves as the friendly bank that works to help “their neighbors” with buying a house. The FDA’s clients are pharmaceutical companies. Unlike banks, the FDA has significant leverage over the company because it is responsible for reviewing a company’s drug with the hope that FDA will approve it. While many companies are also large, there is no real leverage that the company has over the FDA. Thus, the company is at a distinct unsettling disadvantage. However, both parties have the common desire to market safe and effective drug products. Where the rubber hits the road is that the two parties need to agree on what is needed to demonstrate that the drug is safe and effective.

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  • Three Common Issues Involving Clinical Trials

    24 October, 2013 Cindy Fazzi, Marketing Communications Specialist, MasterControl Inc.

    In clinical research, there are two major regulatory concerns: patient safety and data integrity. While there are many possible reasons for regulators to conduct an inspection during a clinical trial, most of the time, it’s to verify these two things and to ensure that the research is being conducted according to the study protocol and GCP regulations.

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  • Avoiding the Silo Effect: The Importance of Communication in Clinical Trials

    12 November, 2013 Rebecca York, Senior Clinical Research Associate, PPD

    As clinical research professionals, we rely on the adage, “If it wasn’t documented, it wasn’t done.” This simple concept guides our every effort in creating solid, reproducible scientific progress. However, without effective communication between stakeholders in clinical trials, research sites are doomed to repeat the same (well-documented) mistakes, and study progress can be hindered, shrouded in a fog of confusion and misunderstanding. With that in mind, perhaps the time has come for an addendum: “If it wasn’t documented, it wasn’t done – but if it wasn’t communicated, it can’t be corrected!” The flow of communication, from investigative sites through monitors to clients (study sponsors) and to regulatory authorities, must be clearly defined and maintained in order to assure the success of a trial.

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  • Grid Analysis for Simplified Supplier Selection

    12 November, 2013 Jennifer Stepniowski, Communications Director, Pro QC International

    The selection of a new supplier can be an arduous process, and the importance of the decision is inarguable.  Changing suppliers when continuous improvement recommendations fail to succeed most surely will result in high switching costs.  Ultimately, the decision is worth careful evaluation, which makes a grid analysis a useful and easy tool to use.

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  • FDA Inspections: Be Prepared to Ensure Quality and Compliance

    12 November, 2013 Michael R. Hamrell, Ph.D., RAC, FRAPs, CCRA, RQAP-GCP, MORIAH Consultants

    You have just been informed by your boss that the FDA is coming to conduct an inspection of a clinical study recently completed at your facility. Does this raise your anxiety level and that of your staff to near panic levels? A FDA inspection can bring on images in your mind of a large room, bright lights and grueling questions. Probably no other agency of our government can evoke a more frightening scenario, except for maybe an IRS audit. However, with proper planning and preparation, a FDA inspection does not have to be a nightmare experience.

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  • 6 Ways to Leverage Risk-Based Monitoring & Clinical CAPA

    14 November, 2013 Cindy Fazzi, Marketing Communications Specialist, MasterControl Inc.

    A big part of the cost of developing a new drug can be attributed to clinical research, which typically lasts at least eight-and-a-half years.  For this reason, regulatory bodies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are emphasizing the need to mitigate clinical-trial risks (1).

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  • What If You Needed SOPs to Run Your Household?

    5 December, 2013 Laurie Meehan, Internal Project Manager, Polaris Compliance Consultants, Inc.

    In August, I traveled to Phoenix to videotape a presentation for Natural Products INSIDER’s Digital Summit.  The presentation, entitled “A Guide to SOPs and Compliance for Dietary Supplement Distributors,” goes into much more detail than our February blog post on the same subject (which you can read here:

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  • A Risk-Based Approach to Validation

    10 December, 2013 Peter Knauer, Partner Consultant, MasterControl Inc.

    FDA classically has defined the requirements for validation under 21 CFR 820 and 210/211 regulations as a comprehensive testing process where all systems are given thorough examination and tested under equal weight, complete with an exhaustive evaluation process. Recent guidance and initiatives by FDA (Process Validation: General Principles and Practices) and ICH (Q11: DEVELOPMENT AND MANUFACTURE OF DRUG SUBSTANCES) have provided a streamlined risk based approach under an updated life cycle management methodology. Under this scenario, a new definition of validation has emerged, best described by FDA as “the collection and evaluation of data, from the process design stage through production, which establishes scientific evidence that a process is capable of consistently delivering quality products.” This is in contrast to the classical definition as perhaps best emphasized in the device regulations under 21 CFR 820.75:

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  • Biosimilars Establishing Themselves in Europe

    12 December, 2013 Peter Calcott, President, Calcott Consulting LLC.

    From the introduction of the Guidelines for Biosimilars in the EU in 2004, Europe has been pressing hard for the introduction of these money-saving options into the marketplace.  The initial guidelines of 2004 were followed very rapidly with further guidances on comparability (2005), preclinical and clinical requirements (2005), recognition of the changing landscape (2010) and in 2011, further recommendations for studies and statement of the recognition of the issues surrounding lice

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  • 10 Guidelines for Writing Superior SOPs

    18 December, 2013 Robyn Barnes, Public Relations Specialist, MasterControl Inc.

    Will you be prepared when tasked to write a standard operating procedure (SOP)? Writing SOPs--- shorthand for a written document that helps ensure accuracy and repeatability when executing a task---is an integral part of assembling a successful quality system. When poorly written, they are of limited value.  Using the following 10 guidelines, you can create a successful SOP document.

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  • How to Confuse and Confound Your Trainees in 10 Easy Steps!

    23 December, 2013 Jill Drummond, Director Training Education, Blood Systems

    On-the-job training is usually conducted one-on-one or in small groups so it can be challenging to confuse trainees; but fear not — when employees start a new job, they are usually a little nervous or apprehensive.  They want to make a good impression and they want to be successful in learning their new tasks.  This is when they are most vulnerable and they are easy pickings for total confusion.  Follow these simple steps and you will have your new hires running for the hills and

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  • An Argument for Effective Quality Management Systems

    31 December, 2013 Kamaal Anas, Vice President Regulatory Affairs, Wright Medical Technology

    All too often, quality management systems are seen as a cost of doing business – a requirement of regulators (e.g., 21 CFR 820), customers (e.g., ISO 9001:2008) or overbearing parent companies – rather than as a tool for management to effectively manage their organizations. However, quality management systems that are effectively designed, implemented, utilized and continuously improved upon provide management with quality information, delivered in a timely fashion, which facilitate data-driven decision making. Designing and implementing a quality management system that provides the appropriate information for management to make educated decisions requires careful thought and detailed planning. Once accomplished, management will have the tools to effectively allocate resources to risk-prone areas and reduce the cost of poor quality.

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  • Digging up Root Cause

    23 January, 2014 Robyn Barnes, Public Relations, MasterControl Inc.

    Dan O’Leary, president at Ombu Enterprises, LLC, started an interesting discussion on LinkedIn’s Corrective and Preventive Action Group. He was wondering where the term “root cause” came from.

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  • Establishing a Master Harms List: Streamlining Risk Management

    24 January, 2014 David Amor, CQA, MS Managing Partner, MEDgineering

    Risk management is a sore point for a lot of start-ups during their product development programs. FMEAs, FTAs, ISO 14971- the sheer number of acronyms alone is staggering! I excitedly introduce you to another one – the MHL, or Master Harms List. Aligning product failures identified in risk management activities with their corresponding clinical harms sometimes becomes very labor intensive. In attempting to ensure that all relevant harms associated with a product’s component failures are captured, the engineer is presented with an expansive list of possibilities. Consumer risk is a permanent priority: thorough risk analysis is forever coupled with patient and physician safety. Drawing from multiple sources and inputs - whether from other hazard analyses, customer complaints, instructions for use or otherwise - the engineer may become overwhelmed with the plethora of available data and overlook some of the simpler and more frequently occurring harms. The preparation of an MHL gives you a leg up on the competition by giving you a “one-stop-shop” for all of your harms and eliminates the difficult task of assembling a coherent list from a multitude of sources.

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