Sterile pharmaceutical products injections

Pharmaceuticals for injection must be presented in a sterile form. Sterility may be achieved by filtration through 0.22 pm filters under aseptic conditions, or by steam, dry heat, radiation or gas sterilisation methods, which may be applied to packaged products. Irrespective of the method, the process must be validated and monitored to assure its effectiveness. As discussed in Chapter 2, this is an example of a process that cannot be assured by verification testing because of its destructive nature. 

Although some types of pharmaceutical products, like ophthalmic and injectable preparations, are sterilized by physical methods, including autoclaving, dry heat, or by bacterial filtration during their manufacture, many of them additionally require the presence of an antimicrobial preservative to maintain their aseptic condition throughout the period of their storage and use. Other types of preparations that are not sterilized during their... 

Sterile producfs for injection represent a particular challenge for the pharmaceutics development group. To prepare injectables, the pharmacists need not only sterile rooms in which to work at the laboratory, pilot plant, and production scales of operation, but they also require pyrogen-free wafer. Pyrogens are impurities, generally originating with... 

Bacterial endotoxins, or pyrogens, are substances that will cause a variety of symptoms such as a rise in body temperature when injected in large amounts into human or animal bodies. In pharmaceutical products and medical devices intended for parenteral injection, the absence of endotoxins has equal or greater importance than sterility. None of the other large-scale... 

The most obviously recognized sterile pharmaceutical preparations are injections. These vary from very small volume antigenic products to large volume, total parenteral nutrition products. Other... 

There are many definitions of quality (see Sharp, 2000). For the purpose of pharmaceutical products the term quality is usually taken to mean fitness for purpose. Not only must the product have the desired therapeutic properties it must also be safe for administration by the route intended. Some products such as injections must be sterile, while others such as oral drugs need not be sterile, but must be free from pathogens that can be contracted via the oral route (British Pharmacopoeia, 2003, Appendix XVID). A great deal more space in the literature is dedicated to quality of sterile products, but this reflects the additional quality assurance required compared with that for non-sterile products (Sharp, 2000). 

This chapter focuses on the preparing and filling of injectable solid bulk pharmaceutical formulations. The material presented is general in nature but with references to direct the reader to more in-depth treatment of the subject matter. Coverage includes sterile bulk product preparation. 

As pharmaceutical scientists gain experience and tackle the primary challenges of developing stable parenteral formulations of proteins, the horizons continue to expand and novel delivery systems and alternative routes of administration are being sought. The interest in protein drug delivery is reflected by the wealth of literature that covers this topic [150-154]. Typically, protein therapeutics are prepared as sterile products for parenteral administration, but in the past several years, there has been increased interest in pulmonary, oral, transdermal, and controlled-release injectable formulations and many advances have been made. Some of the more promising recent developments are summarized in this section. 

Clean rooms are environmentally controlled areas within the pharmaceutical facility in which critical manufacturing steps for injectable/sterile (bio)pharmaceuticals must be undertaken. The rooms are specifically designed to protect the product from contamination. Common potential contaminants include microorganisms and particulate matter. These contaminants can be airborne, or derived from process equipment, personnel, etc. 

Microfiltration is used widely in the pharmaceutical industry to produce injectable drug solutions. Regulating agencies require rigid adherence to standard preparation procedures to ensure a consistent, safe, sterile product. Microfiltration removes particles but, more importantly, all viable bacteria, so a 0.22- xm-rated filter is usually used. Because the cost of validating membrane suppliers is substantial, users usually develop long-term relationships with individual suppliers. 

Downstream processing involves employment of a purifying system that can isolate the product in as few steps as possible using the simplest purification technology that will achieve the required purity. While purity is a critical consideration for both small-molecule pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals, the nature of biopharmaceutical administration (typically via injection) and the nature of biotechnology processes require that additional considerations be paid to the purity of biopharmaceuticals. The final product must meet regulatory purity and sterility standards and must be below the maximally acceptable cellular or microbial contamination (Ho and Gibaldi, 2003). 

Final product isolation in a form suitable for further processing into the final dose form of the pharmaceutical, e.g., as a tablet or an injectable solution. Secondary production of this type is sometimes done in a separate facility, with the raw material referred to as the bulk product or, more recently, the active pharmaceutical ingredient. Examples of unit operations at this stage of processing include lyophilization, precipitation, or crystallization followed by solid isolation using filtration and drying techniques. In some cases, the final product must be produced in a sterile form, which introduces additional complications when selecting suitable process equipment. 

Most freeze-dried pharmaceuticals—and, of course, all injectable products—need to be sterile. Until now, the usual rule to achieve that goal has been to start with a sterile solution and, from there on, to carry out an entirely sterile process. Indeed, the time is over when the manufacturers could add a 1/10,000 merthiolate to get rid of an accidental contamination. Today all freeze-dryers have their cabinets opening within a sterile room while the machinery is sitting behind the wall in the engine room. Moreover, the drying chambers are all equipped with clean-in-place (CIP) systems and can be sterilized by pressure steam before each operation. Finally, those products that are prepared in vials are sealed directly within the chamber thanks to moving pressure plates that drive the stoppers tight into the neck of the vials. 

Injectable products, ophthalmic products, and inhalation solutions Pharmaceutical ingredients Purified water Manufacturing environment Products As above Loop and taps daily Every shift in critical aseptic processing areas Every batch with the exception of terminally sterilized products approved for parametric release... 

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