Monthly Updates

The feature story in the April issue explores how regulators and industry are working together to make quality risk management (QRM) a more effective force in improving quality systems and the regulatory communication process at the review and inspections levels. The three parts of the story provide insights from: ● HPRA’S Kevin O’Donnell on the evolution of QRM and the revision now underway of ICH’s 15-year-old QRM guideline Q9, which he is leading ● FDA’s Rick Friedman, also on the Q9 revision Expert Working Group, on advancing aseptic processes through QRM, and ● industry/academia thought leaders on evolving QRM’s relationship with knowledge management across the product lifecycle.

The March issue provides a wealth of insights shared by FDA, EMA and PMDA biotherapeutic and vaccine regulators on the challenges, opportunities, and learnings as they have sought to support the accelerated product development and review called for by the pandemic, while assuring that CMC/quality standards are met and keeping up with their non-COVID-related workload. Included are updates on the guidances and other quality-related initiatives impacting vaccines and biotherapeutics that have been forthcoming during the first quarter of 2021.

The issue focuses on how academia and industry are collaborating to address the pressing needs in biopharma workforce development, in recognition of the challenges of keeping pace with the rapidly evolving process and product technologies and the cross-functional understanding and skills needed to support them. The six-part coverage explores the dimensions of these challenges and the collaborations that are being formed and strengthened to address them.

IPQ’s attention during November and December remained centered on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In focus in the two stories in the issue are: ● insights from European experts on the myriad of complex issues that have to be addressed in getting the vaccines from manufacturers into the arms of the billions of people around the world that will need to receive them, and ● how the internal operations and external communication processes among pharmacopeias, industry and regulators are being adapted and collaboration expanded.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic remained central to IPQ’s coverage during September and October. The three stories in this issue focus on: ● the insights from CBER Director Peter Marks on the difficult terrain that regulators have to navigate with industry to reach the goal of getting effective vaccines and therapies for COVID-19 available as efficiently as possible ● USP’s global collaborative efforts to strengthen the standards and accelerate innovation in the biologics arena, and ● the attention FDA is putting on risk management plans (RMPs) to help in the drug shortage prevention and mitigation part of the pandemic response.

The first story provides thought-provoking insights from Jeff Galvin, the CEO of California-based American Gene Technologies (AGT), on the implications of the design-based development paradigm and therapeutic power that comes into play for cell and gene therapies. The multipart story that follows takes our readers inside FDA’s efforts to adapt its CMC regulatory processes and expectations to the CGT needs. Addressed are the various ways in which CBER has been seeking to fulfill the two complementary sides of FDA’s mission in the CGT arena – protecting the public from unapproved and potentially dangerous products, and striving to create a regulatory framework and approach that is as supportive as possible for advancing the field.

In this issue, IPQ explores the dialogue on how the CMC/quality regulatory expectations, guidance and standards can keep pace with and best support the expanding therapeutic potential of peptides and oligonucleotides. The second story focuses on the discussion at USP’s five-year meeting in May by its leadership of the key challenges that the world faces in assuring the supply of quality medicines and the role that USP can play in addressing the challenges through its standards setting, advocacy, and capability building efforts.