The FDA Drug Development Process

This webinar provides an overview of the FDA’s Drug Development Process. This webinar also includes the major FDA regulations involved in the Drug Development Process – the GLP, GMP and GCP regulations.

This webinar is ideal for those who are new to the Drug Development process and those experienced researchers that need an update on FDA requirements.

Why should you Attend:This webinar is a must for those who have to have an understanding of FDA’s Drug Development Process.

Areas Covered in the Session:

• Overview of FDA’s Drug Development Process
• Nonclinical studies required
• Human clinical studies required
• IND requirements
• NDA requirements

Who Will Benefit:

• Regulatory Affairs Personnel
• Quality Personnel
• Research Personnel
• Clinical Personnel
• Project Managers
• Legal Personnel
• Those personnel that require a general understanding of the FDA’s Drug Development Process

Speaker Profile

Albert A. Ghignone MS, RAC is the CEO of AAG Incorporated. For more than 30 years his focus has been on FDA related matters in regulatory affairs, quality assurance and clinical affairs. He has expertise in dealing with all aspects of the FDA approval process for drugs, biologics, medical devices and generic drugs. He has worked in every major segment of the industry-research, quality assurance, regulatory affairs, manufacturing and clinical. He has been responsible for regulatory submissions, registrations, FDA liaison, clinical studies, compliance activities and FDA training. He also has expertise in the assessment of product and facilities for due diligence relative to FDA requirements. He lectures throughout the world on numerous FDA related matters. He is a consultant to FDA and trains FDA Field Force (those who conduct FDA inspections) on GCP, GLP and GMP). In addition to training FDA personnel Mr. Ghignone also consults/trains for Drug, Biologic and Medical Device companies, US Army HIV Research Group, NIH AIDS Group, US Army Surgical Research Group and the Naval Medical Research Group. He is a member of the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society which elected him the 1984 Professional of the Year. He has served the society as Vice President, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors.

In recent years he has filed numerous FDA drug, biologic and medical device submissions for product approval. In addition he has been involved in two of the largest clinical trials conducted, the 8,000 patient clinical trial in Africa and the 16,000 patient clinical trial in Thailand.

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Applied Statistics for FDA Process Validation

Course “Applied Statistics for FDA Process Validation” has been pre-approved by RAPS as eligible for up to 12 credits towards a participant’s RAC recertification upon full completion.

In Guidance for Industry Process Validation: General Principle and Practices, process validation is defined as, “”…the collection and evaluation of data, from the process design stage through commercial production..” The guidance further delineates the ‘process design stage through commercial production’ into three distinct stages of the product lifecycle:

Stage 1: Process Design: The commercial manufacturing process is defined during this stage based on knowledge gained through development and scale-up activities.

Stage 2: Process Qualification: During this stage, the process design is evaluated to determine if the process is capable of reproducible commercial manufacturing.

Stage 3: Continued Process Verification: Ongoing assurance is gained during routine production that the process remains in a state of control.

The first stage of process validation is process design. The Process Validation guidance document states, “A successful validation program depends on information and knowledge from product and process development. This knowledge and understanding is the basis for establishing an approach to control of a manufacturing process that results in products with desired quality attributes:

Manufactures should:

• Understand the sources of variation
• Detect the presence and degree of variation
• Understand the impact of variation on the process and ultimately on product attributes
• Control the variation in a manner commensurate with the risk it represents to the process and product.”

The second stage of process validation is process qualification. Although stage 2 has two elements, this course will focus on recommendations for the second element, PPQ. PPQ “combines the actual facility, utilities, equipment (each now qualified), and the trained personnel with the commercial manufacturing process, control procedures, and components to produce commercial batches.” Additionally, the process validation guidance document that “Each manufacturer should judge whether it has gained sufficient understanding to provide a high degree of assurance in its manufacturing process to justify commercial distribution of the product. Focusing exclusively on qualification efforts without understanding the manufacturing process and associated variations may not lead to adequate assurance of quality.”

The third stage of process validation is continued process verification. The process validation guidance document defines the need for this stage: “After establishing and confirming the process, manufacturers must maintain the process in a state of control over the life of the process, even as materials, equipment, production environment, personnel, and manufacturing procedures change.” Manufacturers should use ongoing programs to collect and analyze product and process data to evaluate the state of control of the process. These programs may identify process or product problems or opportunities for process improvements that can be evaluated and implemented through some of the activities described in Stages 1 and 2.”

This course focuses on how to establish a systematic approach to implementing statistical methodologies into a process validation program consistent with the FDA guidance. It begins with a primer on statistics, focusing on methods that will be applied in each remaining chapter. Next, it teaches the application of statistics for setting specifications and assessing measurement systems (assays), two foundational requirements for process validation. Lastly, the course applies statistic through the three stages of process validation defined by requirements in the process validation regulatory guidance documents. Methods taught through all three stages are recommended by regulatory guidance documents; references to the specific citations in the guidance documents are provided.

Why you should attend:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided a guidance for industry in 2011 that has established a framework for process validation in the pharmaceutical industry. This guidance, titled “Process Validation: General Principles and Practices” consists of a three-stage process. The three stages are 1) Process Design, 2) Process Qualification, and 3) Continued Process Verification.

This course focuses on how to establish a systematic approach to implementing statistical methodologies into a process development and validation program consistent with the FDA guidance. This course teaches the application of statistics for setting specifications, assessing measurement systems (assays), using design of experiments (DOE), developing a control plan as part of a risk management strategy, and ensuring process control/capability. All concepts are taught within the three-stage product cycle framework defined by requirements in the process validation regulatory guidance documents.

Although established for the pharmaceutical industry, it also provides a useful framework for other industries.

Analyses in this course use the point-and-click interface of JMP software by SAS.

Areas Covered in the Session

• apply statistics to set specifications and validate measurement systems (assays)
• develop appropriate sample plans based on confidence and power
• implement suitable statistical methods into a process validation program for each of the three stages
• Stage 1, Process Design: utilize risk management tools to identify and prioritize potential critical process parameters; and define critical process parameters and operating spaces for the commercial manufacturing process using design of experiments (DOE)

• Stage 2, Process Qualification: assess scale effects while incorporating large (pilot and/or commercial) scale data; develop process performance qualification (PPQ) acceptance criteria by characterizing intra and inter-batch variability using process design data and batch homogeneity studies; and develop an appropriate sampling plan for PPQ
• Stage 3, Continued Process Verification: develop a control plan as part of a risk management strategy; collect and analyze product and process data; and ensure your process is in (statistical) control and capable.

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Who Will Benefit:

This seminar is designed for pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical professionals who are involved with product and/or process design, validation, or manufacturing/control.

• Process Scientist/Engineer
• Design Engineer
• Product Development Engineer
• Regulatory/Compliance Professional
• Design Controls Engineer
• Six Sigma Green Belt
• Six Sigma Black Belt
• Continuous Improvement Manager

Day 1 Schedule

Lecture 1: Introduction to Statistics for Process Validation

• principles of process validation
• stages of process validation

Primer on Statistical Analysis

• basic statistics

Lecture 2: Primer on Statistical Analysis (cont.)

• statistical intervals and hypothesis testing

Lecture 3: Primer on Statistical Analysis (cont.)

• statistical intervals and hypothesis testing
• ANOVA

Lecture 4: Primer on Statistical Analysis (cont.)

• regression
• run charts

Day 2 Schedule

Lecture 1: Foundational Requirements for Process Validation

• setting specifications
• analytical methodology

Stage 1 – Process Design

• steps to DOE
• screening designs

Lecture 2: Stage 1 – Process Design

• response surface designs
• establishing a strategy for process qualification

Lecture 3: Stage 2 – Process Qualification

• introduction
• incorporation of large-scale data
• development of PPQ acceptance criteria
• development of sampling plans

Lecture 4: Stage 3 – Continued Process Verification

• statistical process control
• process capability

Heath Rushing

Co-founder and Principal, Adsurgo

Heath Rushing is the cofounder of Adsurgo and author of the book Design and Analysis of Experiments by Douglas Montgomery: A Supplement for using JMP. Previously, he was the JMP and Six Sigma training manager at SAS. He led a team of nine technical professionals designing and delivering applied statistics and quality continuing education courses. He created tailored courses, applications, and long-term training plans in quality and statistics across a variety of industries to include biotech, pharmaceutical, medical device, and chemical processing. Mr. Rushing has been an invited speaker on applicability of statistics for national and international conferences. As a Quality Engineer at Amgen, he championed statistical principles in every business unit. He designed and delivered a DOE course that immediately became the company standard required at multiple sites. Additionally, he developed and implemented numerous innovative statistical methods advancing corporate risk management, process capability, and validation acceptance criteria. He won the top teaching award out of 54 instructors in the Air Force Academy math department where he taught several semesters and sections of operations research and statistics. Additionally, he designs and delivers short courses in statistics, data mining, and simulation modeling for SAS.

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Cleaning Validations Using Extraction Techniques

Cleaning validations are an essential step in the medical device development process. One of the most common methods is using extraction techniques to validate the cleanliness of a device. This webinar will provide valuable guidance on how to achieve a thorough validation of a cleaning process.

Why should you attend:Medical device manufacturers have always been under scrutiny to ensure that their product does no harm to the patient. Regulatory agencies have become increasingly aware of the potential dangers of residual manufacturing materials on medical devices. Therefore, cleanliness has become a hot topic in the medical device community. A thorough validation of the cleaning processes used to remove residual materials from newly manufactured medical devices is necessary to ensure patient safety.

Areas Covered in the Session:

• Cleaning Validation Overview
• Defining the Scope
• Identifying the Contaminants
• Choosing the Test Method
• Choosing the Solvents
• Setting Extraction Parameters
• Validating the Extraction
• Setting Limits

Who Will Benefit:

• QA/QC Managers and Personnel
• Validation Managers and Personnel

Speaker Profile

Kierstan Andrascik has worked in the medical device industry for more than 12 years. She founded QVET Consulting in 2009 to assist medical device manufacturers with their validation needs. She specializes in cleaning validations for both new and reprocessed medical devices and has established herself as one of the foremost experts in medical device cleanliness. She also provides guidance in many other areas including sterilization, biocompatibility, packaging, and materials characterization.

Previously, she worked at Nelson Laboratories in Salt Lake City, Utah where she served as study director covering a variety of testing including new device cleaning validations, materials characterization, and package testing. In 2002, she began developing a method to quantify residual manufacturing materials on medical devices. In 2005, ASTM published a similar method as F2459. Kierstan has been actively serving on the ASTM Device Cleanliness subcommittee since 2005. She received a Certificate of Achievement from ASTM in May 2007. In the June 2008 issue of Medical Design magazine, her article titled “How to tell if a device is really clean” was published. Then, in April 2011, her chapter “Cleaning Validations using Extraction Techniques” published in the 2nd edition of Handbook for Critical Cleaning. She has a BS in chemistry and mathematics, and an AS in Engineering from Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

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Cleaning and Sanitation Training for Food Processors

We will cover several topics of value to food manufacturing sanitation team members. We will begin with a conceptual understanding of cleaning vs. sanitation.

We will then review proper cleaning techniques to ensure microbial and allergen residue removal. Attendees will learn about the chemicals used in industrial cleaning and sanitation and how to protect themselves against harmful exposure and accidents.

Why should you attend: The industry has come a long way since the turn of the century, when the poor sanitation practices of many food manufacturing facilities was exposed. Recent events have highlighted the need for even better sanitation. The population has become decidedly more vulnerable and exposed to food borne illnesses linked to manufacturers.

The FDA cited Sunland Inc, the firm that manufactured various nut products recalled this year, for numerous sanitation violations. Failure to properly clean equipment and subsequent salmonella contamination of product resulted in a very poor outcome for this facility. Poor sanitation can also result in allergen cross contamination. Understanding where there are “dead ends” in product flow and difficult to clean areas is important for sanitation personnel to be aware of. What types of cleaning chemicals remove the various types of soils unique to each industry is also critical for an effective sanitation program. Very basic sanitation concepts and practices can make a big difference.

Course Modules & Content Details:

• Cleaning and Sanitation practices specific to various areas of the manufacturing environment and the resultant risks
• Types of soils and cleaning chemicals based on the properties of each
• Results of exposure to hazardous chemicals, how to read labels and maintain chemical safety.

Areas Covered in the Session:

• Scope of Cleaning and Sanitation
• Sanitation Regulations and Best Practices
• Cleaning
• Chemical Safety
• Review
• Closing
• Self Assessment

Who Will Benefit:

• Food Manufacturing employees at all levels, especially sanitation and operations/production team members
• Auditors who review facilities quality assurance programs
• Customers who want to understand best practices that they should require of their suppliers will benefit

Speaker Profile

Melinda Allen is a Food Safety and Quality Consultant in the Food Industry. Melinda has had a long and dedicated career of Quality Assurance and Food Safety leadership with companies such as YUM Brands and Quiznos. Her consulting clients have included leaders in the field such as Burger King, Panda Express and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. She continues to work with many of these and additional clients. Melinda and her team of experienced professionals are available for Quality Assurance and Food Service auditing, Specification and Program Development and Training, Product Commercialization.

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Medical Device Adverse Event Reporting Systems in EU, Canada and US

Medical device firms’ obligation doesn’t end upon obtaining a marketing clearance, approval, or certificates. Medical device manufacturers are required to report adverse events to the authorities (e.g., Competent Authorities, Health Canada and US FDA), where applicable.

To achieve compliance and to remain compliant with the adverse event reporting requirements, it is imperative that medical device manufacturers understand what requirements apply and how to meet the said requirements.

This webinar will walk you through to help you understand and stay in conformity with the adverse event reporting requirements in EU, Canada and US.

This webinar will help you profoundly change your way of planning, developing, implementing and following your relevant and applicable processes in a more efficient and effective manner.

Why should you attend : Medical device manufacturers are required to report adverse events to the authorities (e.g., Competent Authorities, Health Canada and US FDA), where applicable.

To achieve compliance and to remain compliant with the adverse event reporting requirements, it is critical to accurately interpret and understand what requirements apply and how to meet the said requirements.

This webinar will walk you through to help you understand and stay in conformity with the adverse event reporting requirements in EU, Canada and US.

Areas Covered in the Session

• Applicable and relevant regulations in EU, Canada and US
• Definitions
• Medical device adverse event reporting requirements in EU, Canada and US.
• Medical device vigilance system during the post-production phase in EU.
• Mandatory medical device problem reporting requirements in Canada.
• Mandatory medical device reporting requirements in US.
• Review of actual reporting forms in EU, Canada and US
• Applicable and relevant guidance documents
• Conclusion

Who Will Benefit:

• Regulatory Affairs Managers, Directors and VPs
• Clinical Affairs Managers, Directors and VPs
• Quality Managers, Directors and VPs
• Quality Managers, Directors and VPs
• Compliance Managers and Directors
• Sales and Marketing Managers, Directors, and VPs
• Complaint Handling and Risk Management Managers and Directors
• Site Managers, Directors, and Consultants
• Senior and Executive Management
• Compliance Officers and Legal Counsel
• Business Development Managers, Directors, and VPs

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21 CFR PART 11: Complete Manual for Compliance Success

FDA inspectors are ever increasing the number of inspections where they include Part 11 as a part of the scope or THE scope of the inspection. The trends and reports are showing that the FDA inspectors are focusing on electronic signatures and electronic records as more and more companies are implementing systems and technologies to support these activities.

The number of warning letters is increasing proportionally and we as quality and other professionals utilizing the technology and systems to support our businesses are not ready – we are not ready to prepare and host FDA inspections when Part 11 is in scope, we are unsure how to best use and implement Audit Trails and certainly we have challenges with internal and external auditing for Part 11 compliance. This webinar address all these topics and provides you with plenty HOW TO we as auditors and inspectors increase our comfort level with the regulation, with its elements and compliance and practically implement audit system and audit trails – especially since Audit Trails play major role in Part 11 compliance – they can be your best friends and/or worst enemies at the same time.

Areas Covered in the Seminar:

• How to Prepare and Host FDA Inspections (will cover elements and details of preparation for the inspection as well as elements of the successful practices of hosting an FDA inspection when Part 11 is in scope or the scope of the inspection. We will also cover some commonly asked questions by the inspectors and benefits of being compliant)
• Internal and External Auditing for Part 11 Compliance (this subtopic includes all aspects of auditing for Part 11 compliance- starting at the audit program level and then going down on how to prepare for an audit to how to successfully execute the audit and follow up on the completed audit. This subtopic also includes CAPA and responses for the audit findings related to Part 11 – what to expect and handle the difference between “regular” audits and Part 11 audits. We include some of the common audit findings and common pitfalls as well as tools for a successful planning and execution of the audit.)
• Audit Trails (includes types of audit trails, strategies for implementing complaint audit trails, proms and cons of audit trails, how to use audit trails as an audit tool during the internal and external audit as well as during the FDA inspection visit, some examples of “should” and “shouldn’t” when it comes to the audit trails and commonly asked questions related to audit trails.)
• Overview and Understanding of the Regulation (covers topics such as introduction and development of the regulation, what to expect in the future when it comes to the regulation, options for (non)compliance, “what ifs”, as well as most impactful sections and subsections of the regulations.)
• How Part 11 Regulation Relates to Other Regulations (this subtopic compares the Part 11 regulation with other regulations focusing on commonalities so that you and your organization can see how easy/hard is to identify gaps as well as how harvest the low hanging fruits when striving to comply with Part 11 regulation. We cover comparison with 3-4 other regulations quoting the exact subsections of each.)
• Sample Audit Questions (throughout the material, we ensure that we present you and prepare you to deal with some commonly asked audit and inspection questions. These questions are ready-made for you to use when you and your team are conducting internal and/or external audits, but they are also ready-made for you and your team to use as you prepare to/and host FDA inspection when Part 11 in scope of the inspection. We include some of the questions in the material presentation and in addition to that we provide you with additional 30+ commonly asked questions document which you can use for your references and training purposes.)
• Trends; Warning Letter Examples; Advantages and Challenges of the Regulation (we conducted research to bring you and your team results of inspections and audits that have been conducted in past several years. We include trends and graphs showing how and where Part 11 regulations impacts you the most, but will also show examples of the warning letters that have been issued in last several years due to lack of compliance with the Part 11 regulation. Finally, we cover and include some examples of advantages and challenges you may be benefiting from or facing to address while striving to be Part 11 compliant.)
• More (we talk about the importance and significance of the regulation regardless if it (currently) applies to you or not. We provide examples and HOW TO so that you and your team can get most out of the materials and presentation – and to be able to use it immediately after attending this training/webinar.)

Who Will Benefit:

• Quality Managers
• Quality Engineers
• Manufacturing engineers
• CAPA investigators
• Inspectors
• Six Sigma specialists
• Consultants

Speaker Profile

Jasmin NUHIC serves a major medical devices OEM as a Sr. Compliance Quality Engineer and 21 CFR Part 11 Subject Matter Expert. He also served ASQ section as a chair for two consecutive terms, has taught quality certification exam prep course, completed numerous software validations and obtained over 25 different certifications in leadership, quality, software validations, and more. Jasmin NUHIC has conducted Webinars on this and other topics with high attendance and appreciation.

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Supply Chain Integrity and Security

The topic of supply chain integrity and security is relatively new in Pharma, having gained prominence in recent years for the reasons described above. Breach of security related to criminal activity is where the issues are most visible and enforcement activity is actively taking place around the globe. In parallel, if we are looking for sustainable, root cause solutions, we must also turn our attention to supply chain integrity and deal with both security and integrity concurrently.

An Oxford on-line dictionary definition of integrity is “the state of being whole and undivided”. Over the last 40 years, the Pharma supply chain has fragmented to the point where it is a million miles from that state. There are now multiple business models, such as virtual, biotech, specialty Pharma, innovator, generics, biosimilars, etc and a divergence of supporting actors, such a contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs), contract research organizations (CROs), central laboratories, third party logistics providers, pre-wholesalers, wholesalers, specialty pharmaceutical providers (SPPs) etc. As a result, our supply chains have dis-integrated to the point where visibility and accountability have become blurred at the edges – and it is this disintegration that has opened the doors to criminal activity and errors in quality outcomes.

The solution is not an easy one. It requires urgent action to mitigate activities of the ‘bad guys’, together with a longer term approach to ensure the ‘good guys’ get better at building and managing robust supply chains. This can only be achieved by collaboration between regulators, other enforcement agencies, technology providers and the industry itself. Where do we start?

We must initially focus on the end-to-end supply chain in its current state. Chains of custody and ownership must be clearly identified and remediation actions agreed by responsible parties to plug the gaps that currently exist. For example, Quality and technical agreements must become far more ‘process’ orientated so that they become working documents shared between business partners, rather than merely a static list of tick boxes. Change control has to work on upstream and downstream impacts that might affect supply chain integrity and procurement must forge supply agreements that impose obligations for supply chain visibility on prospective partners. This and much more needs to happen and will be discussed in the session.

Then we must turn attention to the building of supply chains for the future – the product development phase. This industry is unique in that the entire supply chain must be registered with competent authorities before approval to sell and post-launch changes have to be approved. This places a great responsibility on getting it right from the start. This is where the opportunity lay for sustainable improvements in the physical architecture of the supply chain and the underpinning management processes and information flows. A foundation for this has already been put in place by the regulators through FDA’s 21st Century Modernization initiative and ICH Q8 – 11 guidelines. The key to translating these initiatives into meaningful supply chain improvements, however, it in understanding the patient value proposition and the organizational/cultural elements that must firstly be in place, and these are explored in some depth.

Why should you attend: The Pharmaceutical supply chain has never been in such turmoil and under such attack from governments and regulators globally. The evidence is stark and mounting. Supply chain shortages in the US have moved even the President to demand urgent remediation; high level congressional committees have also asked searching questions of FDA and other involved stakeholders, in an attempt to discover what has been going on with high profile supply chain failures. Cargo theft, diversion and counterfeiting have become almost endemic, with detection and enforcement efforts stretched to the limit. Finally, and possibly most worrying of all, are the cases where materials have been adulterated or substituted with toxic alternatives (for economic gain) and have progressed undetected through one or more stages in the supply chain causing eventual patient death.

Areas Covered in the Session:

• How to organize for supply chain integrity throughout the product life cycle
• Current approaches to clamping down on criminal activity in the supply chain
• Issues causing greatest concern to regulators and how to address them
• Role of ICH Q8 – 11 in building robust supply chains
• How the disciplines of procurement and supply chain management (SCM) can be leveraged
• Role of technology as an enabler

Who Will Benefit:

• Research chemistry and biochemistry
• Chemical and biochemical engineering
• Chemistry, manufacturing, and controls
• Preclinical Development
• Clinical Development
• Regulatory Affairs
• Quality Assurance

Speaker Profile

Hedley Rees is a practicing consultant, coach and trainer, helping healthcare companies build, manage and continuously improve their clinical trial and commercial supply chains and risk profiles. He has his own company, Biotech PharmaFlow Ltd, based in the UK and handles assignments across the spectrum from top ten Pharma’s through to highly virtual early stage start ups. Prior to this, Hedley held senior supply chain positions at Bayer, British Biotech, Vernalis, Johnson & Johnson and OSI Pharmaceuticals. His skill set covers the range of supply chain management processes from strategic procurement, production and inventory control, distribution logistics, information systems and improvement. His specific interest is in driving industry improvements through the regulatory modernization frameworks of FDAs 21st Century Modernization and ICH Q8 – Q10.

Hedley holds an Executive MBA from Cranfield University School of Management and is a corporate member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (MCIPS). He is a member of the UK BioIndustry Association’s (BIA) Manufacturing Advisory Committee and also regularly speaks at international conferences, being co-chair of the 2011 FDA/Xavier University sponsored Global Outsourcing Conference in Cincinnati, October 2 -5. He has published in US and EU pharmaceutical journals and is author of “Supply Chain Management in the Drug Industry: Delivering Patient Value for Pharmaceuticals and Biologics” published by J. Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey.

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Drug Development Process – From Discovery to Marketing

Overview:

This webinar will provide a clinical and regulatory perspectives on requirements to take a new drug from research to market.

We will begin by reviewing the contents of an Investigational New Drug (IND) application, and then follow the process of an IND submission. Next, the contents and approval process of an NDA submission will be discussed. This seminar will also provide a foundation for those who require an understanding of the FDA new drug approval process, and familiarize the attendees with the regulatory landscape in which INDs and NDAs are developed and approved.

Areas Covered in the Session:

• High level overview of the FDA approval process for a new drug
• What is an IND? Identify the key contents of an IND
• What is an NDA? Identify the contents of an NDA
• The FDA IND and NDA review process
• Discovery stage
• Preclinical Testing
• IND Application
• Clinical Trials
• Phases I to IV
• NDA
• High-level description of medical device process

Who Will Benefit:

• CRAs
• CRCs
• Nurses
• Clinical Trials Associates
• Regulatory Affairs

Speaker Profile

Fatuga is a social-entrepreneur who is actively engaged in three primary roles/companies: (a) founder/president of Caligeo Clinical OneVision; (b) founder/CEO of Caligeo Clinical CRO; and (c) founder/Executive Director of Atlanta Premier SMO. His professional passion lies in promoting clinical trial opportunities in emerging markets (especially in Africa, the Caribbean, East Asia, and Latin America) and among under-represented population (in the USA). He recently completed his MBA degree from Emory University/Goizueta Business School with a focus on Entrepreneurial ship/Organizational Behavior & Management. He received his M.Sc. in Drug Regulatory Affairs and Health Policies from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and BS degree in Neuroscience from Brown University. He has more than 15 years of experience in the clinical research industry. Fatuga began his clinical research career as a study coordinator at Brown University. Since then, he has had leadership opportunities as Clinical Team Manager, Project Lead, QA/QC Manager, Lead CRA, CRA Consultant, Medical Research Associate, and CRA Specialist in a variety of companies such as central imaging facility, Contract Research Organizations (CROs), biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Fatuga is currently certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Clinical Research Associate (CCRA). He is an active member of the International GCP Training Advisory Board for the Association of Good Clinical Practices in Nigeria (AGCPN) and also a member of Nigerian Association of Pharmacist and Pharmaceutical Scientists in the Americas (NAPPSA). Fatuga is also a member of the International Committee/Leadership Team of the National Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Association (NBPA) which is a US based organization functioning in collaborative efforts to discuss challenges and opportunities of conducting clinical trials with diverse communities as well as addressing the disparity issues in the clinical trial industry.

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What are the FDA’s Process Validation requirements?

Process Validation (PV), according to the FDA, is collecting and assessing data right from the design stage till the production stage. PV is set out for all the stages of production for a product in the FDA-regulated industries. The core purpose of PV is to establish scientific proof that any process being employed has the capability of delivering quality products consistently.

The FDA’s process validation requirements are set out in its general principles of Process Validation. Starting from 1987, the FDA has been issuing guidelines at intervals to state, improve and strengthen the general principles of Process Validation. In almost a quarter century of the first guideline, the revision of January 2011 came into being. This guideline is considered a landmark and a guide for PV professionals since it reworked extensively and expanded the general principles on process validation. It is the current guideline from the FDA on Process Validation requirements.

These are what the FDA’s 2011 guideline on general principles on Process Validation propagate:

• Incorporation of the principles of sound science
• Taking steps to assess and mitigate risk
• Bringing about improvements in every stage of the process
• Adapting the science-based principles of contemporary manufacturing
• Fostering and encouraging innovation

The centrality of control to process validation

Process validation is tied to the product lifecycle approach by the FDA general principles on process validation of 2011. The central purpose of process validation is to ensure that the process is in a state of control at all stages of production.

The following points illustrate the reason for which the FDA expects its PV requirements to be met:

• Being a process that is ongoing and continuous, PV begins at the earliest stages of production and goes on till the product’s lifecycle is completed
• Those in charge of commercial production should have deep and intimate knowledge of the workings of PV principles
• Only this knowledge helps PV professional locate the sources of variability and address them
• Only PV into which risk management is built frees errors from the product

The three stages of PV

The FDA stipulates three layers or stages on which its general principles of Process Validation are built:

• Process design: The stage in which the knowledge gained helps the commercial process define the process development activities
• Process qualification: The stage where PV guarantees that the process design has the capability for being reproduced at industrial level
• Continued Process Validation: The most important stage PV in that this is where the element of control into the routine production process is introduced and built; Continued Process Validation takes under its ambit all activities such as continuous verification, maintenance, and process improvement. Information is collected and monitored during commercialization to assess the Continued Process Validation stage.

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Seminar

Applied Statistics for FDA Process Validation

Course “Applied Statistics for FDA Process Validation” has been pre-approved by RAPS as eligible for up to 12 credits towards a participant’s RAC recertification upon full completion.

In Guidance for Industry Process Validation: General Principle and Practices, process validation is defined as, “”…the collection and evaluation of data, from the process design stage through commercial production..” The guidance further delineates the ‘process design stage through commercial production’ into three distinct stages of the product lifecycle:

Stage 1: Process Design: The commercial manufacturing process is defined during this stage based on knowledge gained through development and scale-up activities.

Stage 2: Process Qualification: During this stage, the process design is evaluated to determine if the process is capable of reproducible commercial manufacturing.

Stage 3: Continued Process Verification: Ongoing assurance is gained during routine production that the process remains in a state of control.

The first stage of process validation is process design. The Process Validation guidance document states, “A successful validation program depends on information and knowledge from product and process development. This knowledge and understanding is the basis for establishing an approach to control of a manufacturing process that results in products with desired quality attributes:

Manufactures should:

• Understand the sources of variation
• Detect the presence and degree of variation
• Understand the impact of variation on the process and ultimately on product attributes
• Control the variation in a manner commensurate with the risk it represents to the process and product.”

The second stage of process validation is process qualification. Although stage 2 has two elements, this course will focus on recommendations for the second element, PPQ. PPQ “combines the actual facility, utilities, equipment (each now qualified), and the trained personnel with the commercial manufacturing process, control procedures, and components to produce commercial batches.” Additionally, the process validation guidance document that “Each manufacturer should judge whether it has gained sufficient understanding to provide a high degree of assurance in its manufacturing process to justify commercial distribution of the product. Focusing exclusively on qualification efforts without understanding the manufacturing process and associated variations may not lead to adequate assurance of quality.”

The third stage of process validation is continued process verification. The process validation guidance document defines the need for this stage: “After establishing and confirming the process, manufacturers must maintain the process in a state of control over the life of the process, even as materials, equipment, production environment, personnel, and manufacturing procedures change.” Manufacturers should use ongoing programs to collect and analyze product and process data to evaluate the state of control of the process. These programs may identify process or product problems or opportunities for process improvements that can be evaluated and implemented through some of the activities described in Stages 1 and 2.”

This course focuses on how to establish a systematic approach to implementing statistical methodologies into a process validation program consistent with the FDA guidance. It begins with a primer on statistics, focusing on methods that will be applied in each remaining chapter. Next, it teaches the application of statistics for setting specifications and assessing measurement systems (assays), two foundational requirements for process validation. Lastly, the course applies statistic through the three stages of process validation defined by requirements in the process validation regulatory guidance documents. Methods taught through all three stages are recommended by regulatory guidance documents; references to the specific citations in the guidance documents are provided.

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Why you should attend:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided a guidance for industry in 2011 that has established a framework for process validation in the pharmaceutical industry. This guidance, titled “Process Validation: General Principles and Practices” consists of a three-stage process. The three stages are 1) Process Design, 2) Process Qualification, and 3) Continued Process Verification.

This course focuses on how to establish a systematic approach to implementing statistical methodologies into a process development and validation program consistent with the FDA guidance. This course teaches the application of statistics for setting specifications, assessing measurement systems (assays), using design of experiments (DOE), developing a control plan as part of a risk management strategy, and ensuring process control/capability. All concepts are taught within the three-stage product cycle framework defined by requirements in the process validation regulatory guidance documents.

Although established for the pharmaceutical industry, it also provides a useful framework for other industries.

Analyses in this course use the point-and-click interface of JMP software by SAS.

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Areas Covered in the Session

• apply statistics to set specifications and validate measurement systems (assays)
• develop appropriate sample plans based on confidence and power
• implement suitable statistical methods into a process validation program for each of the three stages
• Stage 1, Process Design: utilize risk management tools to identify and prioritize potential critical process parameters; and define critical process parameters and operating spaces for the commercial manufacturing process using design of experiments (DOE)
• Stage 2, Process Qualification: assess scale effects while incorporating large (pilot and/or commercial) scale data; develop process performance qualification (PPQ) acceptance criteria by characterizing intra and inter-batch variability using process design data and batch homogeneity studies; and develop an appropriate sampling plan for PPQ
• Stage 3, Continued Process Verification: develop a control plan as part of a risk management strategy; collect and analyze product and process data; and ensure your process is in (statistical) control and capable.

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Who Will Benefit:

This seminar is designed for pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical professionals who are involved with product and/or process design, validation, or manufacturing/control.

• Process Scientist/Engineer
• Design Engineer
• Product Development Engineer
• Regulatory/Compliance Professional
• Design Controls Engineer
• Six Sigma Green Belt
• Six Sigma Black Belt
• Continuous Improvement Manager

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