Beckman Coulter highlights work ahead of GMP Annex 1 deadline
Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, a laboratory automation and innovation specialist, continues its commitment to providing laboratories of all sizes with individualised and tailored support to meet the evolving list of regional and global compliance requirements.
Cleanroom laboratories manufacturing sterile medicinal products in the European Union (EU) must make critical changes by August 25, 2023, to ensure Annex 1 Regulation compliance. This is a substantial update to the initial version released in 2008 and provides comprehensive guidance for manufacturers, including the design and control of facilities, equipment, systems, and procedures used for the manufacture of all sterile products to ensure that microbial, particulate, and endotoxin/pyrogen contamination is prevented.
Anurag Tandon, global vice president of quality control and biomanufacturing, said: “At 58 pages and 293 paragraphs, we understand laboratory professionals have questions about this updated and broad regulation. This new era of compliance will raise questions, and we are committed to working with laboratories of all sizes to clarify and provide answers to complex questions as we continue to lead the way in providing resources and consultations for laboratories to ensure a seamless compliance transition.”
Key focus areas in the revised regulation include applying the principles of Quality Risk Management (QRM), ensuring continuous environmental monitoring, online total organic carbon (TOC) monitoring, and an increased emphasis on the importance of having a robust Contamination Control Strategy (CCS) in place. The classification of cleanrooms and environmental monitoring is also increasingly important throughout the update.
Tandon added: “Solutions from Beckman Coulter Life Sciences for analysing total organic carbon, environmental monitoring and particle counting are used every day around the world to help ensure quality and safety in diverse applications. We share a name with measurement principles that drive particle counting and characterization technology – The Coulter Principle – and are a trusted resource for instruments delivering critical data to researchers, formulation development scientists, and GMP regulated quality control departments around the world.”
MET ONE 3400+ Series portable air particle counters from Beckman Coulter Life Sciences enable labs to monitor air cleanliness in compliance with EU GMP Annex 1 Regulation, ISO 14644, and FDA CGMP, with features that include plug-and-play networking and customised electronic SOP maps. Annex 1 Regulation also includes a focus on utilities, including water systems. The ANATEL PAT700 TOC analyser is specifically designed to help demonstrate compliance to the pharmacopeial requirements for TOC and conductivity for purified water and Water for Injection (WFI) systems.