Cross Contamination Control - Live Online Training
27/28 May 2025
Course No. 21607
Speakers
Robert G. Schwarz
GXP-TrainCon
Dr Markus Keller
Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA)
Dr Harald Stahl
GEA
Nikolaus Ferstl
Facility Engineering Services
All times mentioned are CEST.
Objectives
This GMP training aims at unveiling possible risks of cross contamination during the production process of Pharmaceutical products and APIs. This is especially important for patients’ safety, product quality and to be in compliance with chapters 3 and 5 of the EU GMP regulation as well as the new EU GMP Annex 1. The prevention of cross contamination is part of the contamination control strategy and has to be documented accordingly taking into consideration QRM principles according ICH-Q9.
You will learn
how to detect possible risks
how to avoid cross contamination
how to prove the avoidance of cross contamination
how to document a regulatory compliant strategy
Background
Cross Contamination is one of the highest risks for patients using pharmaceutical products. Not only the presence of small amounts of antibiotics or other highly potent compounds in medicinal products can cause severe damage, but also carryover of one product into another pharmaceutical product is of high Risk to the patient. According to the Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency in the United Kingdom for example, Product contamination is the second to third highest reason for recalls in the UK in recent years.
The EU commission already reacted on that in 2015 by updating the chapters 3 (premises & equipment) and 5 (production) with the focus on minimizing the risk of cross contamination. Already three years before a new EMA Guide on setting health-based exposure limits was published. This new guide has massive Impact on the dedication of facilities and also on the calculation of Limits for cleaning validation. Limits for the maximum carryover now have to be calculated by considering the toxicological/pharmacological properties of each single product, answering the question: how much cross contamination is allowed. The latest document addressing cross contamination is the revised EU GMP Annex 1. It contains several paragraphs dealing with cross contamination and contamination in general which includes a risk-based Contamination Control Strategy (CCS) aligned with Quality Risk Management principles according to ICH-Q9.
Reasons for cross contamination can be manifold and caused by technical as well as organisational deficiencies. Insufficient cleaning of equipment, poor facility design or inappropriate design of the HVAC system may be reasons as well as contamination via personnel or primary packing material. But also, the design of the production process itself can be the cause for cross contamination, for example due to open product handling during transfer or sampling operations in shared plants without adequate measures.
It is therefore extremely important to mitigate the risk of cross contamination, starting already at the design phase of processes and equipment. In addition, it is essential to understand how contamination risks can be detected. Some measures include quality oversight walks in production Areas or reviewing the documents (SOPs, technical drawings, etc.) already during process development, design qualification and additionally on a regular basis which has to be predefined.
This mitigation of cross contamination risks should be included and regularly reviewed – and updated if required – as part of the contamination control strategy (CCS) which has to be documented accordingly.
Target Group
This training is aimed at Production, QA and engineering Departments of pharmaceutical companies to maintain product quality and patient safety in a regulatory compliant and agile production life cycle. Suppliers for the pharmaceutical industry are also addressed in order to better understand the requirements of their customers.
Date & Technical Requirements
Date
Tuesday, 27 May 2025, 09.00 to approx. 17.00 h Wednesday, 28 May 2025, 09.00 to approx. 15.00 h
Technical Requirements
We use Webex for our live online training courses and webinars. At www.gmp-compliance.org/training/online-training-technical-information you will find all the Information you need to participate in our events and you can check if your system meets the necessary requirements to participate. If the installation of browser extensions is not possible due to your rights in the IT system, please contact your IT department. Webex is a standard nowadays and the necessary installation is fast and easy.
Testimonials
Seminar Programme as PDF