The bulk of microbiology attention in the drug manufacturing world is laser focused on sterile drug products and the myriad steps needed to aseptically manufacture them. That is certainly with good reason as those drug products carry the highest patient risk should there be microbial contamination. One aseptic manufacturing misstep and the consequences could be […]
In an article published in Fierce Pharma today (here), Kevin Dunleavy pointed to a congressional letter (here), penned by Congresswoman Lisa McClain, Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services, that questions the long lag time for the FDA and its advisory committee to come to the conclusion that phenylephrine, as an oral decongestant, does […]
The FDA is warning about a serious and potentially fatal adverse event that has been reported with use of the antiseizure medications levetiracetam (Keppra, Keppra XR, Elepsia XR, Spritam) and clobazam (Onfi, Sympazan). The ADE, called Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms (DRESS), is extremely rare and the “FDA’s cumulative review found 42 serious […]
Not sure what is taking the FDA so long to fix the system “glitch” in reporting ANDA approval actions, but this has been going on for quite a while. Here we are, the day before Thanksgiving, and there are only 14 full ANDA approval actions and 9 tentative approval actions listed in the available FDA […]
Bring up the recently updated and finalized EU Annex 1 – Manufacture of Sterile Medicinal Drug Products (here) in polite pharmaceutical water cooler conversation and a frequent topic that comes up is the Contamination Control Strategy (CCS) language. Buzzwords abound for a “holistic”, “global”, or “wholesale” CCS to be incorporated into all elements of aseptic […]
On November 7, 2023, a press release from the FTC announced that “the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) challenged more than 100 patents held by manufacturers of brand-name asthma inhalers, epinephrine autoinjectors, and other drug products as improperly or inaccurately listed in the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) publication of “Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations,” […]
First, let’s look at September 2023 statistics (end of FY 2023), then we will comment on the full FY stats. As we reported here, September looked to be a slow month, and it was. While we missed a few full-approval actions (we reported forty-one), the OGD actually issued forty-four, and ten tentative-approval actions. Remember, the Agency […]
The EU has continued its advancement of initiatives and intentions to combat the drug shortage problem. The latest communication is titled “Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Addressing medicine shortages in the EU” (here). This is a deep dive […]
Once again, with October approval action postings surprisingly low, I confirmed that the FDA is still having trouble with its internal IT systems that generate this information and populate certain databases. While it does not appear to be impacting data regarding NDAs, the ANDA postings are spotty at best. The word came back from OGD […]
On the heels of additional reports of methanol poisoning from ingestion of hand sanitizers, the FDA issued a new final guidance titled Policy for Testing of Alcohol (Ethanol) and Isopropyl Alcohol for Methanol (here) for immediate implementation. The guidance applies to the use of pharmaceutical alcohols (PAs) (ethanol and isopropyl alcohol) by pharmaceutical manufacturers, outsourcing […]
