Adam Fleming's Blog (255)

Packaging and labeling of commercial and clinical products are very important aspects to an organization involved in a business that relates to these products. While the packaging and labeling of commercial products is important, it is more so with clinical products, because these products play an important role in a clinical trial and also in the very life of a patient or subject.

Commercial products have their own value over time. The FDA has guidances for…

The FDA considers verification and transfer of Test Methods a subject worthy of 483 observations and issuance of Warning Letters. Test method verification is also required by the GMPs, and USP has a whole chapter dedicated to test method verification. This makes comprehension of the requirements for the verification and transfer of a test method into a laboratory imperative for Laboratory Managers and other personnel.…

In this interconnected, interdependent global world, the need for contracting procurement of any goods or services is strong and indispensable. However, the benefits of this feature notwithstanding, there are several loopholes in the procurement and contracting activity. Outsourcing and contracting, by their very nature, are vulnerable to fraud. Fraud can happen at any stage of the procurement and contract process.…

Regulatory agencies such as the FDA conduct inspections for product-related Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) in the course of assessing an application for marketing approval. The basic purpose of product-related GMP inspections is to check for compliance with the GMP guidelines set out in the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) and national and local GMP regulations. GMP is the slightest standard that a manufacturer has to mandatorily meet in its production…

Regulatory agencies the world over have put in place stringent requirements for ensuring that cleaning validation procedures for analytical equipment are effective. Even if putting these practices in place involves expense and effort, it is worth the trouble, because the cost of noncompliance is much, much higher than that of compliance.

Noncompliance with regulations for cleaning validation procedures for analytical equipment has a serious consequence: Regulatory…

Establishing Quality Systems is one of the central aspects of a medical device and/or pharmaceutical organization. Establishment of Quality Systems is also a regulatory requirement, as set out by the FDA and the ISO.

The process of establishment of Quality Systems for FDA-regulated medical devices industries is set out in 21 CFR Part 820. Further, the ISO has its standard for how to establish Quality Systems in medical devices industries –the ISO 13485 standard…

Medical device hazard analysis is of vital importance to a medical device. Medical device hazard analysis is at the heart of medical devices because if the device is not analyzed thoroughly for the hazard, or danger, that it poses, it is likely to cause problems of any kind to the user. Many a time, it becomes a matter of life and death. This is why medical device hazard analysis is of foremost importance.…

Quality and compliance are vital issues for any medical devices company. Despite the fact that the FDA’s regulatory compliance requirements are the same across the industry; many medical device companies are shocked when they receive a 483, or a Warning Letter, or even a consent decree. Is meeting the FDA’s regulatory requirements something of a chance, which some organizations get by fluke and others don’t?…

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has guidelines and laws for the way fringe benefits have to be taxed. First, an introduction to fringe benefits: Anything that is in addition to a person’s regular salary may be termed a fringe benefit. It is usually linked to an employee’s performance. Some of the common types of fringe benefits include children’s education, vehicle for commuting to the workplace and back, health insurance, retirement benefits and many others.…

Considered one of the most significant changes to be introduced into the American healthcare sector since the passage of the Affordable Care Act; the 21st Century Cures Act was one of the last legislative acts of outgoing president Barack Obama. Signed into law in December 2016; the 21st Century Cures Act seeks to strengthen medical research, foster innovation and accelerate the development of innovative treatments for chronic ailments such as cancer.…

Lyophilization and its validation and regulatory approaches form an important aspect of parenteral drugs.

Lyophilization is a process in which a product is frozen and placed in a vacuum and water is removed from it. This removes the need for the liquid stage in the change of ice from solid to vapor. This process consists of three phases: primary, sublimation and desorption.

Lyophilization is considered complex

Parenteral products such…

A financial organization, or an organization involved in any business for that matter, faces the prospect of receiving duplicate, fraudulent or late payments. These are the typical payment issues an organization is likely to face at some point of time in its business.

Payment issues are something almost no organization is likely to be free from. Duplicate invoice payments, just one of the payment issues an organization is likely to face, account for losses of…

That the inputted data should be “normally distributed” is a requirement of the calculations used in many statistical tests and methods. Typically, the methods used for Student’s t-Tests, ANOVA tables, F-tests, Normal Tolerance limits, and Process Capability Indices include such calculations.

A core criterion for ensuring the correct results is the one that the raw data used in such calculations be “normally distributed”. It is in view of this fact that the…

Design of Experiments (DoE) is an important component in many industries. It is a series of tests or runs that is carried out repeatedly and consistently over a period of time, and its outputs or responses, observed. Design of Experiments is very important in industry to help arrive at an understanding of the predictability and reproducibility of an experiment.

Design of…

The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) standards are a set of standards pertaining to different industries and their activities and practices. IFRS 6 relates to guidance in the accounting practices of the extractive industries, such as oil, mining and gas. The IFRS 6 accounting standard states the requirements, as well as the disclosures that need to go into accounting practices for expenses that a company incurs during the course of exploring and…

Financial statements are the ultimate indicator of a company’s financial health. Number crunching is a very important exercise that all executives at all levels of an organization need to be familiar with. Yet, given the heavy jargon that goes into financial statements and the complexity most of them have; many managers feel put off and don’t generally like to pore over financial statements.

The company’s financial statement is intended to provide insights into the…