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With the Chinese government initiating drug regulatory reform in 2015 and China joining the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) in 2017, a significant number of measures have been implemented by the government. The aim is to make fundamental changes to China’s drug regulatory administration system so it can facilitate pharmaceutical development and better meet patient needs in the...

Features

Digital display labels (DDLs) offer an alternative solution to eliminate manual relabeling in the clinical supply chain, optimizing label content updates through a simple, system-controlled approach while providing new, uncharted opportunities. With increased efficiency in making regulatory-compliant changes and enhanced flexibility in the clinical supply chain, DDL technology has the...

Technical

The validation of media and buffer mixing is a continuing area of resource constraint in the pharmaceutical industry. These validations require materials, validation associates’ time, and the use of equipment and processing areas. This article proposes a risk-based life cycle for minimizing mixing validation resource inputs, with the objective of optimizing validation efforts through the use...

Technical

Pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities produce a variety of products, including highly potent products that require safety measures to prevent adverse health effects on patients and operators. To ensure safety, these facilities use containment equipment to minimize the risk of contamination. This article presents criteria for selecting containment equipment, considering both...

Technical

Pharmaceutical critical utilities are typically built of 316L stainless steel; nevertheless, surface degradation has been reported due to the occurrence of different phenomena. This article aims to explain how field electrochemical techniques using a portable tool can be an effective method for surface inspection, qualification, and monitoring. The surface finish assessment considered...

Technical

The world is beginning to grasp the huge challenge of achieving net-zero carbon emissions, or carbon neutrality, by 2050. Many countries have committed to achieving this ambitious goal. As a major global industry, the pharmaceutical sector has a significant role to play. For thermal energy–intensive industries, such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, the long-term future options to maintain...

InTouch

The impact people have on others’ lives is not always obvious. For many, the Advil mini pill might not seem like a big deal, but for people who have trouble swallowing pills, like cancer patients, the tiny pill has made a huge difference in their ability to manage pain. It’s projects like that, as well as treatments for bladder cancer and transthyretin amyloidosis, that Tammy Spain is most...

Features

Due to the growing digitalization of the industry, we are highly dependent on information technology (IT) systems and data. The basic ability to execute our pharmaceutical business and decision-making processes relies on the permanent availability of these IT systems and data to ensure compliance and efficiency of our business operations. But numerous factors—including criminal activities,...

Features

IT infrastructure has traditionally been provisioned using a combination of scripts and manual processes. This manual approach was slow and introduced the risk of human error, resulting in inconsistency between environments or even leaving the infrastructure in an unqualified state. In this article, we investigate some fundamental advantages of using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for...

Features

This article provides a brief introduction into the standards and regulations for medical devices. It compares the ISPE GAMP® 5 Guide: A Risk-Based Approach to Compliant GxP Computerized Systems (Second Edition) and applicable ISPE GAMP Good Practice Guides against the relevant regulations and standards for the development of software for medical devices and demonstrates GAMP® 5 Second...

Features

Advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) are one of the most promising developments in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries in recent decades. Although there is a great promise to treat and even cure many diseases with these products, there are also unique challenges, especially with their supply chains.

Features

Facility design decisions made early in conceptual design can have a significant impact on the cost of goods sold (COGS) in the manufacture of autologous and allogeneic cell therapy products. Understanding the impact of a COGS analysis is an important aspect of the early-phase design process.

Features

Live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) have the potential to treat a wide range of ailments. However, these living microorganisms are difficult to produce due to evolving government regulations and limited GMP manufacturing experience. New facility designs and more specific process guidance could help overcome these challenges. This article explores the nuances of facility design and regulatory...

Features

Cell and gene therapy (C&GT) products comprise a rapidly growing field of innovative medicines that hold the promise to treat and, in some cases, cure diseases that are otherwise untreatable. In this article, we provide points to consider when evaluating the comparability of C&GT when changes are made in their manufacturing processes.

Features

As the demand for accelerated access to medicines expands globally, the pharmaceutical industry is increasingly submitting regulatory applications in multiple countries simultaneously. As a result, Boards of Health (BoHs) are challenged with approving these applications in an accelerated timeframe and accommodating the submission of postapproval chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC)...

Features

The new European Commission GMP Annex 1 “Manufacture of Sterile Medicinal Products” and the equivalent Annex 2 from the World Health Organization (WHO) triggered a discussion in ISPE’s Germany/Austria/Switzerland (D/A/CH) Aseptic Processing Community of Practice (CoP) Steering Committee about where to qualify air speed: “at working position” versus “at working level.” This article provides...

Features

The biopharmaceutical industry must develop and implement innovative ways of working to be effective and efficient in the current healthcare ecosystem, in which high-quality medicines, adaptability, and assurance of supply are of critical importance. There are regulatory strategies and technologies emerging to address these challenges, but further progress must be made to fully harness the...

Features

This article describes how ISPE GAMP® 5: A Risk-Based Approach to Compliant GxP Computerized Systems (Second Edition) and related GAMP Good Practice Guides can be effectively applied to help meet the requirements of the proposed European Union (EU) artificial intelligence (AI) regulation for qualifying GxP-regulated systems employing AI and machine learning (ML).

Features

ISPE has launched an important new initiative, “Enabling Global Pharma Innovation: Delivering for Patients,” in support of the aspirations of many regulatory agencies globally to promote introduction of innovative pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Features

The creation of a new ICH guidance document, Q13,1

  • 1International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use. “ICH Harmonised Tripartite Guideline Q13: Continuous Manufacturing of Drug Substances and Drug Products.” Published July 2021.
Features

Understanding and managing risks to continuous manufacturing (CM) technology is central to any decision to greenlight CM in a production-ready environment. Applying a systemwide risk management (SRM) approach to manufacturing is essential to ensuring manufacturing projects are vetted in a comprehensive and consistent manner.

Features

Pharmaceutical continuous manufacturing (CM) is recognized as a key process intensification technology, with investment expected to rise in the coming years and the focus shifting toward biologics. This article provides a review on the current state of CM implementation, offers insights into life cycle management and regulatory aspects, and explains how a data- and knowledge-centric approach...

Features

In the interest of understanding the current state of continuous manufacturing for biologics and to facilitate the path toward adoption of these promising technologies, the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and BioPhorum jointly sponsored a hybrid workshop. This article summarizes trends from the workshop and ponders next steps.

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Latest Articles

iSpeak Blog

The following blog post was provided by Peyton Myers, an undergraduate student at Appalachian State University. Myers attended the 2023 ISPE Annual Meeting & Expo in Las Vegas as an ISPE Foundation Professional Development Grant recipient.

iSpeak Blog

The integration of data science in biopharmaceutical manufacturing, emphasizing data quality, tech transfer efficiency, and process optimization, is the heart of this track. Led by industry experts, discussions explore leveraging digital twins, predictive analytics, and continuous improvement initiatives. Additionally, interactive roundtable discussions provide attendees with a dynamic forum...

iSpeak Blog

The pharmaceutical sector stands at a crossroads of immense possibilities. We are witnessing an unprecedented surge in innovation, fueled by a remarkable partnership between industry and regulatory authorities. For example, there are initiatives fostered by the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) to promote innovation with programs such as CATT (CBER Advanced Technologies Team) and ETP...

iSpeak Blog

Through the ISPE Foundation Professional Development Grant program, Silas Tamufor attended the 2023 ISPE Annual Meeting & Expo in October 2023. Tamufor is a PhD student and ISPE Boston Chapter member who began serving as the ISPE Boston Educational Programs Committee Chair in December 2023. He, along with 87 other students and recent graduates, attended the conference thanks to the...

iSpeak Blog

To meet the biopharmaceutical industry’s duty to manufacture safe and effective therapies for patients, a robust quality system is fundamental to success. A quality system should link to quality culture and prioritize focusing on quality, led by management, that fosters sustainable compliance and consistent production of high-quality drugs. Strong quality culture attributes include a proactive...

iSpeak Blog

Stability sampling and testing are key to ensuring that products maintain safety, identity, strength, purity, and quality throughout their claimed shelf life. It is also a regulatory requirement per ICH Q5. However, storing product samples in different environmental conditions, testing those samples for three to five years (or more) after initial manufacture, and properly analyzing and...

iSpeak Blog

Biopharmaceutical facility design is a critical aspect of the industry. Overall cost pressures in the global health system, regional requirements to deploy manufacturing rather than centralize manufacturing in one location, technology enhancements in cell biology and format, flexibility to accommodate multi-product campaigns with different production schedules, and speed-to-market are among...

iSpeak Blog

The biotechnology industry continues to evolve, advancing the frontiers of science and engineering in the design, development, and manufacture of a wide variety of therapeutic modalities. Advances in cell and gene therapies continue to offer treatments for diseases that were previously uncurable, with seven approvals in 2023, including treatments for sickle-cell disease, hemophilia, type 1...

iSpeak Blog

The International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering’s (ISPE) Women in Pharma® group was established in 2017. Since its inception, it has grown to a community of more than 2,000 members who are actively engaged in educational, collaborative, and networking activities designed to bridge gender, cultural, organizational, and geographic boundaries, maximize the impact women have in...

iSpeak Blog

Since starting with ISPE, Edyna Miguez, has had the incredible opportunity to connect with women across the globe working within the pharmaceutical industry, as part of the ISPE Women in Pharma® program. The tenure of these rising female leaders varies, as do their cultural backgrounds. However, one fact remains consistent: they are looking to make the industry a more equitable and...

iSpeak Blog

It is an exciting time in life sciences. Many companies have focused initial artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) adoption efforts on developing and implementing ML trained algorithms, which necessitate following a controlled approach such as the GAMP® 5 ML Sub-System methodology shown below. This blog highlights key artifacts and considerations when implementing AI/ML for GxP use...

Technical

As the pharma industry moves to an ambitious Validation 4.0 paradigm, computerized systems play a pivotal role in enabling the rapid transition. Innovation and agility in computerized system validation (CSV) received a strong push in the second half of 2022 with the publication of the FDA draft guidance on “Computer Software Assurance for Production and Quality System Software”

iSpeak Blog

ISPE’s Regulatory Quality Harmonization Committee (RQHC) is structured with four Regional Focus Groups (RFGs): Asia-Pacific, Europe/Middle East/Africa, Latin America, and North America. The RFGs support ISPE in its understanding and response to regulatory issues and concerns for the specific region. The RQHC Asia-Pacific RFG includes pharmaceutical professionals located in or having specific...

iSpeak Blog

Aaron Bober is an active member of ISPE, the ISPE Women in Pharma® Boston Chapter, and the ISPE Women in Pharma International Steering Committee. He is based in the Boston, Massachusetts, area and serves as the Director of Engineering, New England, at IPS. Bober developed the below testimonial, recounting his personal experience and investment in supporting women in the pharmaceutical industry...

iSpeak Blog

With well over a century of history and change, the first International Women's Day was held in March 1911. International Women's Day is a day of collective global activism and celebration that belongs to all those committed to forging women's equality.

InTouch

The new year is here and, with that, another International Women’s Day approaches! This incredibly important global movement, which takes place every 8 March, celebrates women’s achievements, raises awareness about discrimination, and advocates for accelerated equality and gender parity. ISPE’s Women in Pharma® community strives to accomplish all these goals through regional and international...

Current Issue

March / April 2024

Navigating the Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Landscape for Global Impact Cover: The Asia Pacific region (APAC), like any large territory, encompasses a blend of well established and early-stage economies, diverse healthcare systems, and differences in language, culture, politics, and technology adoption. APAC’s size and complexity has created new challenges and opportunities for the pharmaceutical...