Creating a new drug involves significant time, effort, and resources. Many assume drug development is straightforward, with final products approved fairly quickly, but the drug approval timeline can take 10 to 15 years. For every 10,000 compounds analyzed, only one or two are ultimately approved.
Drug development is extensive, starting with locating the DNA proteins that drugs can focus on before ensuring the product is safe by performing various tests. Various clinical trials are also needed before final approval is provided, adding further complexities.
Image Credit: Design Space InPharmatics LLC
Including chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC) is central to this process, ensuring the highest standard for new drugs throughout creation and approval.
Adherence to CMC requirements during development confirms the quality and safety of new medications. This article examines CMC and its involvement in drug development.
Ensuring regulatory compliance
Compliance with regulatory requirements is essential in drug approval. A regulatory submission’s CMC section will be thoroughly scrutinized for evidence the drug can be consistently manufactured commercially while meeting strict quality standards.
Regulatory agencies like the United States Food and Drug Administration or the European Medicines Agency request comprehensive data that confirms a drug’s manufacturing process is reproducible and robust.
Insufficient or incomplete CMC documentation can cause considerable delays in approval timelines or even rejections, highlighting the need for strict compliance.
Managing resources
Although innovative organizations may not have extensive in-house CMC resources or capabilities, developing breakthrough drugs often falls within their ambit.
Engaging with contract manufacturing organizations becomes strategically necessary to overcome these limitations. This allows for specialized manufacturing and analytical expertise and facilitates advanced novel therapeutic development despite fundamental resource constraints.
Tailored approach
Each drug candidate is unique, meaning a one-size-fits-all approach to CMC is impractical.
Developing and optimizing analytical methods and manufacturing processes must be custom-designed around the drug’s:
- Particular attributes
- Therapeutic target
- Intended clinical use
This requires a deep understanding of the drug’s process parameters and critical quality attributes, essential in ensuring a product’s efficacy, quality, and safety.
Documentation
Meticulous documentation of all CMC activities is fundamental in successful drug development and includes comprehensive records of:
- Manufacturing processes
- Quality control measures
- Changes implemented during development
- Stability data
Such documentation is essential for regulatory submissions and a foundational element in ensuring accountability and traceability over the drug’s lifestyle.
Storytelling
When completing New Drug Applications or Biologics License Applications, it is important to articulate a compelling and coherent CMC narrative within regulatory submissions.
This narrative must convincingly demonstrate full control over the drug’s manufacturing process and emphasize maintaining quality control throughout all stages of drug development.
A well-crafted CMC narrative can positively affect the regulatory review process, showcasing the applicant’s commitment to patient safety and product quality.
Early planning
CMC considerations should be explored early in drug development to address potential challenges pre-emptively.
By planning early, drug developers can streamline the approval process by generating precise, comprehensive data sets that meet regulatory requirements. This enables more effective resource allocation and risk management throughout the development lifecycle.
Expertise and partnerships
The complexity of CMC activities requires technical and regulatory expertise. Organizations, especially smaller ones with limited internal capabilities, benefit from strategic partnerships with CMC regulatory consultancies.
These partnerships offer specialized knowledge and insights into regulatory strategies, augmenting an organization’s in-house expertise, improving the quality of submissions, and increasing the chance of regulatory approval.
Addressing these critical CMC considerations can significantly influence breakthrough drug development’s success.
Through regulatory compliance, meticulous planning, effective resource management, and strategic partnerships, pharmaceutical companies can better understand the drug development process, improving the likelihood of bringing innovative therapeutics to market.
Summary
Incorporating CMC into drug development is crucial to ensure product quality; it acts as a lens that focuses on various aspects of drug development, ensuring they function adequately.
Following CMC recommendations allows organizations to:
- Adhere to essential regulations that may incur penalties or fines if broken
- Save money by avoiding procedural issues that could slow or stop development
- Ensure that the medication’s unique properties are taken into account, maximizing product quality
If a drug is to be approved, its development process requires uniformity and reliability, and CMC can help provide this.
CMC considerations in drug development can be complicated, so it is important to seek expert advice from companies like DS Inpharmatics to understand the process fully.
DS Inpharmatics’s experts can provide information and support throughout the CMC process, whether related to drug products or substances.
Acknowledgments
Produced from materials originally authored by Meranda Parascandola from Design Space InPharmatics LLC.
About Design Space InPharmatics LLC
DSI provides regulatory, technical, and project management consulting services to healthcare product companies that manufacture and/or market pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, and cellular and gene therapy products.
Since 2007 we have provided our clients with innovative strategies and exceptional quality work products intended to enhance product development, approval, and marketing presence.
Whether advocating CMC strategy, directing CMC operations, or developing CMC submission content that represents the best interests of emerging biotech, we focus on the critical CMC issues and build programs that enhance development.
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