Month: August 2016

Two new FDA Warning Letters for API Manufacturers in China

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Two new FDA Warning Letters for API Manufacturers in China

In June 2016, two API manufacturers in China received a Warning Letter from the FDA. Both companies had major deficiencies regarding data integrity. For instance, manipulations were found in HPLC analyses as well as in GC analyses. You will find more information on the current FDA Warning Letters for Chongqing Lummy and Shanghai Desano here. http://www.gmp-compliance.org/enews_05496_Two-new-FDA-Warning-Letters-for-API-Manufacturers-in-China_15488,15484,Z-QCM_n.html
The Chinese Company Chongqing Lummy Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. received a Warning Letter from the FDA on June 21, 2016. This Warning Letter referred to both the FDA inspection from March 14-16, 2016 and the response which the API manufacturer had sent to the FDA on March 31, 2016.

It was claimed that Chongqing Lummy Pharmaceuticals had no adequate control in place to prevent data manipulation or deletion. The FDA investigator’s review of the audit trail revealed that an analyst had manipulated the computerized gas chromatography (GC) system to falsify residual solvent results for several API batches.

The analyst had set back the clock of the GC computer to make it appear that the test had been done 7 months earlier. Then he analyzed 5 different injections in order to determine the 12-month value of the long-term stability test. Afterwards, the analyst deleted the original data and only reported the five new results that were conform. The FDA inspection revealed that this procedure of setting back the clock was conducted with at least five other API batches.

During the review of the HPLC system, the FDA inspector found that the HPLC system was configured in a way that analytical results were automatically deleted whenever a test was aborted prior to completion. The review of the audit trail for the Chemstation software indicated that during the analyses of content and impurities, the partial results of aborted tests were automatically deleted from the HPLC system’s records of these analyses. The clock was also set back on the computer for the HPLC analyses in order to retrospectively obtain “conform” results for stability tests.

The company’s response on March 31, 2016 wasn’t satisfactory for the FDA, either. In summary, the FDA writes: “Your response does not indicate how the software upgrades, the SOP revisions or trainings suggested by you can prevent data deletion in the future nor how your quality unit intends to guarantee that the data critical for approval are complete and correct. A response to the FDA is expected within 15 working days. And if you plan to discontinue the delivery of API to the U.S. altogether, FDA requests that you contact CDER’s Drug Shortages Staff immediately.”

Also with the second API manufacturer (Shanghai Desano Chemical Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.), the data of the laboratory tests were targeted. Here, the main complaint was that laboratory staff performed “unofficial” tests without adequate documentation, justification or investigation:
The original, unofficial analyses were stored in a separate “test folder” and were not part of the official QC data. The inspection revealed that this company had performed about 8,400 of these unofficial chromatographic analyses between 2012 and 2014. According to their internal SOP, all these tests should have been documented. The volume of data in these auxiliary “test folders” suggests that performing unofficial analyses is a common practice at this facility.

You can open the two Warning Letters using these links:
Chongqing Lummy Pharmceutical Co., Ltd.http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/2016/ucm508291.htm
Shanghai Desano Chemical Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/2016/ucm508554.htm

/////////Chongqing Lummy Pharmceutical Co., Ltd, Shanghai Desano Chemical Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, warning letters

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Is AQL Testing required within the 100% Visual Inspection?

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Is AQL Testing required within the 100% Visual Inspection?
One of the most frequently asked questions is whether an additional testing based on samples is required after the 100% visual inspection of parenterals. The answer is: basically, “yes”.

http://www.gmp-compliance.org/enews_05496_Two-new-FDA-Warning-Letters-for-API-Manufacturers-in-China_15488,15484,Z-QCM_n.html

One of the most frequently asked questions is whether an additional AQL testing based on samples is required after the 100% visual inspection of parenterals. The background for that question is the probabilistic nature of visual inspection. It is known that the discovery of defects (like for example particulates) is a matter of detection probability. In other words, visual inspection cannot exclude that defective containers may still be in the batch which hasn’t been sorted out. This applies to manual, semi-automatic and also automatic visual inspection.

The American Pharmacopoeia has reacted to that and has integrated AQL testing in the monograph Visible Particulates in Injections. Here, the value 0.65 has been specifically added for particles testing. This also meets the requirement that injectables have to be essentially free of particles – which is not measurable in this form but with an AQL limit of 0.65. Depending on the batch size and using DIN/ISO tables, it can be determined how large the sample to be extracted has to be after the 100% inspection. It is also set in how many of these samples particles can still be found. Depending on the criticality defined priorly, other defects may required other respective AQL limits.

In Europe, there isn’t any explicit i.e. written requirement for AQL testing (yet). But it is already a state of the art in science and technology. GMP inspectors are also aware that a 100% inspection is “erroneous”, which means that a 100% sorting of defects is not always ensured. The ECA Visual Inspection Interset Group’s Best Practice Guide goes along with the same approach, too. Of course, there are other ways thinkable to optimise the quality of visual inspection, like for example a general second 100% inspection of all batches. This is already practised in many companies; however, only for charges destined to the Japanese market.http://www.visual-inspection.org/visual-inspection-best-practice.html
//////////Is AQL Testing, 100% Visual Inspection

FDA published generic user fee for 2017: for ANDA, DMF, and for Facility (API, FDF)

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http://www.raps.org/Regulatory-Focus/News/2016/07/26/25394/FDA-Lowers-ANDA-Fee-Rates-for-2017/

Generic drugmakers submitting abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) and prior approval supplements (PAS) will see their US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) fee rates drop in 2017, though all other rates, including those for drug master files (DMF) and facility fees will increase when compared to 2016.

For FY 2017, the generic drug fee rates are: ANDA ($70,480, down from $76,030 in 2016), PAS ($35,240, down from $38,020 in 2016), DMF ($51,140, up from $42,170 in 2016), domestic active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) facility ($44,234, up from $40,867 in 2016), foreign API facility ($59,234, up from $55,867 in 2016), domestic finished dose formulation (FDF) facility ($258,646, up from $243,905), and foreign FDF facility ($273,646, up from $258,905 in 2016).

The new fees are effective 1 October 2016 and will remain in effect through 30 September 2017.

FDA explained the increases and decreases in fees, noting that for ANDA and PAS fees, the agency is expecting an increase in the number of submissions estimated to be submitted in FY 2017 when compared to 2016. For 2017, the agency estimates that approximately 891 new original ANDAs and 439 PASs will be submitted and incur filing fees.

Fees for DMFs will increase, meanwhile, because of an expected decrease in the number of submissions estimated to be submitted in 2017 (FDA is estimating 379 fee-paying DMFs for 2017), when compared to the estimated submissions from 2016.

And all facility fees will increase in 2017 when compared to the previous year because of a decrease in the number of facilities that self-identified (the total number of FDF facilities identified through self-identification was 675, of which 255 were domestic facilities and 420 foreign facilities; while the total number of API facilities self-identified was 789, of which 101 were domestic facilities and 688 were foreign facilities), FDA said.

How FDA Calculates the Fees

In order to calculate the ANDA fee, FDA estimated the number of full application equivalents (FAEs) that will be submitted in FY 2017, which is done by assuming ANDAs count as one FAE and PASs (supplements) count as one-half of an FAE, since the fee for a PAS is one half of the fee for an ANDA.

The Generic Drug User Fee Act (GDUFA) also requires that 75% of the fee paid for an ANDA or PAS filing be refunded if either application is refused due to issues other than a failure to pay the fees.

And since this is the last year of this iteration of GDUFA (the next version is still in the works), the agency is allowed to further increase the fee revenues and fees established if such an adjustment is necessary to provide for not more than three months of operating reserves for the first three months of FY 2018, though FDA estimates that the GDUFA program will have carryover balances for such activities in excess of three months of such operating reserves, so FDA will not be performing a final year adjustment.

To pay the fees, companies must complete a Generic Drug User Fee Cover Sheet, available at http://www.fda.gov/gdufa and generate a user fee identification (ID) number. Payment must be made in US currency drawn on a US bank by electronic check, check, bank draft, US postal money order or wire transfer.

Federal Register Notice

See more at: http://www.raps.org/Regulatory-Focus/News/2016/07/26/25394/FDA-Lowers-ANDA-Fee-Rates-for-2017/#sthash.FNo99XHR.dpuf

/////////////FDA,  generic user fee,  2017, ANDA, DMF,  Facility, API, FDF