Manufacturing authorisations , regulatory controls

Effectiveness As the subsequent issuing authorisations will depend on the provision of data to demonstrate that a substance use is adequately controlled, authorisation under REACH can be considered to be effective. For substances that may not meet the adequate control criteria - i.e., VPVB, PBT, non-threshold CMR or endocrine disruptors - but serve critical purposes to manufacturing or product use that might enable them to be authorised, effectiveness of stringent regulatory control would need to be demonstrated based on monitoring schemes. 

After a product has been authorised, the regulatory system operates to keep the quality, safety and efficacy of that product under review and to control the way in which it is manufactured, marketed and distributed. The pharmaceutical legislation in Europe has recently been consolidated and, pursuant to Commission consultation and review, amended. The majority of the amendments are due to come into effect in November 2005. What follows, reflects the state of legislation as at close of 2004. 

Once the clinical and safely evaluation studies for a new medicinal product have shown it to be safe, effective and of acceptable quality, the pharmaceutical company will usually want to submit a Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA) or New Drug Application (NDA) to the regulatory authorities. The chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) section will form a major part of the application. For an MAA in Europe, a development pharmaceutics section is required to describe how the product was developed, and to explain the rationale for the selection of the formulation, pack, manufacturing process and specifications. Also required for Europe are expert reports for each of the pharmaceutical, safety and clinical parts of the application. These have to be written by experienced scientists nominated by the pharmaceutical company who have to critically appraise the development programme for the product. The pharmaceutical expert must acknowledge the acceptability of the CMC part of the application. 

---