The pharmaceutical industry operates within a complex and highly regulated environment, where ensuring the quality, safety, and efficacy of medicines is paramount. Here, Stephan Nobis, Business Development Manager at COPA-DATA, explains how software solutions can ensure that pharmaceutical manufacturers adhere to International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines.
The International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) develops guidelines that standardize key processes related to drug development and manufacturing across different regions through a process of scientific consensus with regulatory and industry experts.
The ICH guidelines are grouped into four main categories: Quality (Q-series), Safety (S-series), Efficacy (E-series), and Multidisciplinary (M-series). The guidelines in the Q-series ensure the quality of medicines at all stages of development, from initial design through to manufacturing. Key elements of this series include Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), risk management, and continuous improvement. The Safety (S-series) guidelines focus on minimizing risks to patient health, particularly during preclinical development. They cover areas such as carcinogenicity, genotoxicity, and reprotoxicity.
Efficacy (E-series) guidelines make sure that clinical trials and therapeutic evaluations are robust and provide reliable data on the benefits of new medicines. Finally, Multidisciplinary Guidelines (M-series) cover cross-functional areas such as electronic submissions (eCTD) and the use of medical terminology (MedDRA) for regulatory documentation.
Supporting quality assurance with zenon
Adhering to all facets of these guidelines is crucial to ensure that safe, effective, and high-quality medicines are developed and registered in a resource-efficient way. Advanced software platforms can offer a support for pharmaceutical companies to do so. zenon, from automation expert COPA-DATA, provides manufacturers with tools to meet complex regulatory demands within the industry while optimizing production processes by automating workflows, ensuring data integrity, and supporting quality management.
In line with Q-series guidelines, zenon can provide valuable assistance to companies seeking in particular to comply with ICH guidelines.
ICH Q7: Adhering to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for APIs
For example, ICH Q7 is focused on Good Manufacturing Practices for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), ensuring that they meet stringent quality and purity requirements. zenon helps companies adhere to these GMP guidelines by visualizing and managing operational process data in real-time. This real-time monitoring allows for immediate detection of GMP deviations, triggering alerts to the appropriate quality assurance (QA) personnel for quick intervention. Through zenon’s comprehensive electronic batch records, pharmaceutical companies can minimize batch release times, ensuring that products meet regulatory standards without delay.
Key features like user management, eSignature, audit trails, and deviation detection help to implement GMP-compliant projects seamlessly. These tools ensure that regulatory mistakes are minimized, and product quality is maintained consistently. Moreover, zenon’s connectivity to over 300 hardware protocols integrates with existing manufacturing systems, ensuring compliance across different regions.
ICH Q8: Supporting Quality by Design (QbD)
ICH Q8 focuses on the implementation of Quality by Design (QbD), a systematic approach that emphasizes product and process understanding to ensure consistent quality. zenon facilitates QbD by enabling pharmaceutical companies to collect and analyze vast amounts of process data and to effectively manage risk throughout the production lifecycle. With zenon’s historian, real-time data collection, and analysis tools, companies can make data-driven decisions that optimize process parameters, ensuring that products are manufactured within defined quality parameters. By continuously monitoring key process variables and utilizing zenon’s recipe management tools, manufacturers can easily adjust and refine processes to maintain product quality.
In today’s pharmaceutical industry, ensuring compliance with international guidelines like those from the ICH is critical. The zenon software platform from COPA-DATA offers tools to support pharmaceutical companies in meeting the ICH guidelines and can assist in the areas of GMP compliance, QbD, and lifecycle management.
By integrating automation, real-time data collection, and process optimization into their operations, pharmaceutical companies can not only ensure compliance but also enhance productivity and product quality. zenon offers a solution to support pharmaceutical companies striving for compliance in a highly regulated and competitive market, preserving both data integrity and the quality of medicines for global patients.
Find out more about zenon here.
About COPA-DATA
COPA-DATA is an independent software manufacturer that specializes in digitalization for the manufacturing industry and energy sector. Its zenon® software platform enables users worldwide to automate, manage, monitor, integrate and optimize machines, equipment, buildings and power grids. COPA-DATA combines decades of experience in automation with the potential of digital transformation. In this way, the company supports its customers to achieve their objectives more easily, faster and more efficiently.
The family-owned business was founded by Thomas Punzenberger in 1987 in Salzburg, Austria. In 2023, with more than 400 employees worldwide, it generated revenue of EUR 87 million.
