On Friday, SecuringPharma, published an interesting article on the quality of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in European generics.
The European Fine Chemicals Group claims that 20 to 30 percent of the APIs come from unapproved sources.
EFCG board member Guy Villax quoted that figure, which he attributed to EU inspectors, at a press conference at the Conference on Pharmaceutical Ingredients (CPhI) held last week in Madrid, Spain.
This causes a huge challenge to the validity and efficiency of the finished product as a single batch of an API can reach from 10,000 to 1,000,000 patients. Currently a manufacturer receives Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification based not only on their own practices, but those of their suppliers as well. If their suppliers are in reality not as they have stated, you can see how this circumvents the inspection process.
Council of Europe is drafting legislation on counterfeit medicines to be reviewed by 40 countries. However, EFCG does not agree with the current wording of the EU's draft directive which suggests that API manufacturers can be inspected by their own domestic authorities, providing their enforcement systems are deemed 'equivalent' by the EU, i.e. they conform to ICH Q7 and are based on regular inspections.
This would work with countries such as the USA, Japan and Australia, said Villax, but he is concerned that equivalence could be granted for political reasons to other countries where the systems may be prone to fraud and corruption.
We at XStream Systems agree that the quality of the finished product is only as good as the quality of the ingredients that are contained therein. In the United States this was only too evident in last year’s case of tainted heparin, where the active ingredient had been tainted by unapproved suppliers and resulted in the death of over 80 people.
To view the entire article visit: www.securingpharma.com.
The European Fine Chemicals Group claims that 20 to 30 percent of the APIs come from unapproved sources.
EFCG board member Guy Villax quoted that figure, which he attributed to EU inspectors, at a press conference at the Conference on Pharmaceutical Ingredients (CPhI) held last week in Madrid, Spain.
This causes a huge challenge to the validity and efficiency of the finished product as a single batch of an API can reach from 10,000 to 1,000,000 patients. Currently a manufacturer receives Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification based not only on their own practices, but those of their suppliers as well. If their suppliers are in reality not as they have stated, you can see how this circumvents the inspection process.
Council of Europe is drafting legislation on counterfeit medicines to be reviewed by 40 countries. However, EFCG does not agree with the current wording of the EU's draft directive which suggests that API manufacturers can be inspected by their own domestic authorities, providing their enforcement systems are deemed 'equivalent' by the EU, i.e. they conform to ICH Q7 and are based on regular inspections.
This would work with countries such as the USA, Japan and Australia, said Villax, but he is concerned that equivalence could be granted for political reasons to other countries where the systems may be prone to fraud and corruption.
We at XStream Systems agree that the quality of the finished product is only as good as the quality of the ingredients that are contained therein. In the United States this was only too evident in last year’s case of tainted heparin, where the active ingredient had been tainted by unapproved suppliers and resulted in the death of over 80 people.
To view the entire article visit: www.securingpharma.com.
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