Real-world evidence (RWE) has become increasingly important for innovative manufacturers looking to convince reluctant payers that their new medicine has a place in patient care. Indeed, many claim the changing nature of the data landscape in healthcare will revolutionize the way we consider evidence, but does this apply to biosimilars? Is there a real need to look at data from actual clinical practice before or after market entry for these products?
GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK’s) blockbuster Advair (salmeterol/fluticasone) is a long-acting beta2 agonist/inhaled corticosteroid fixed-dose combination (LABA/ICS FDC) therapy used in the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Advair is one of GSK’s best-performing drugs, garnering more than $2 billion in company-reported U.S. sales in 2017, despite intense competition from other LABA/ICS FDC brands.
The commissioning of a facility, equipment, or system for operation under GMP regulations involves qualification that all operations are suitable for the intended purpose. The facility owner must have traceable verification of the systems, minimizing punchlist items to improve start-up and eliminate problems up front.
This article presents the most recent publication of GMP drug product inspection data from the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), which addresses drug inspections conducted in FY2017. It looks at five years of data from the FDA, examines data from 2017, and evaluates five years’ worth of trends in GMP inspection enforcement.
FDA officials and leaders in the pharma and medical device spaces agree artificial intelligence (AI) tools could enable a step change in quality management in those industries. Areas that could be impacted include supply chain management, lot release, manufacturing, compliance operations, clinical trial end points, and drug discovery, among others.
Biopharma executives have warned they need more biologics development and manufacturing capacities, particularly in North America. They haven’t been howling at the moon. Four announcements – within two days of each other – offer a sign of relief. And Amgen has provided Outsourced Pharma with its first public estimate of costs for one of those facilities.
This article emphasizes the importance of implementing a regular routine maintenance for inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) equipment, so problem areas associated with instrumental components that are most susceptible to sample blockage, drift, and signal instability can be avoided.
Testing for evidence of microbial contamination in bioprocessing has a long history — and can be expensive, slow, and burdensome. So suppliers, testing facilities, and regulators have been seeking improvements.
Looking forward, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry needs to be aware that the despite the FDA’s year-long delay in enforcement, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA, with its specific compliance deadlines, is still law and that it is only draft guidance from the FDA that identifies an intent not to enforce the DSCSA for one year.
Part 2 of this two-part article reviews lessons from Spark Therapeutics’ pivotal program for Luxturna, a gene therapy approved for the treatment of patients with retinal dystrophy associated with confirmed biallelic mutation in the RPE65 gene, and summarize key considerations for the clinical development and commercialization of gene therapies.
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