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A detailed overview of Good Automated Manufacturing Practice guidelines (GAMP® 5). Read on to learn more about who it applies to, its contents, requirements, and systems validation according to GAMP® 5!
What is GAMP®?
Computer-based systems validation in regulated industries is no walk in the park. To create a computer-based system that serves its purpose in a reliable, transparent, and most importantly safe way, companies developing pharmaceutical products need to meet various predefined requirements. That’s where GAMP comes in.
GAMP — or the Good Automated Manufacturing Practice — is the definitive industry guideline for creating compliant computer systems. Created in 1991 by pharmaceutical professionals, it was specifically designed to address industry needs and meet the evolving expectations of the FDA and regulatory bodies in Europe for computer system compliance and validation.
What are GAMP® 5 guidelines?
In essence, GAMP represents a structured approach to validating computer systems in digital pharmaceutical products. GAMP® 5 is the latest standard of the guideline; it was released in February 2008 by the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering, also known as ISPE.
It is important to note that rather than being a regulation, GAMP® 5 is a set of principles and procedures created to help validate automated computer systems for manufactured pharmaceutical products. In other words, this guideline helps manufacturers meet regulations they must comply with to go to market. These best practices are respected and used by regulated companies and their suppliers all over the world.
Why is GAMP ® 5 important?
At first, it may seem like just another standard to adhere to (understandably) – but GAMP® 5 is here to make your life easier in the long run. It aims to clarify the requirements you must meet, establish a common language as well as clear roles and responsibilities for all involved, and promote processes based on industry best practices.
Using a risk-based approach will also encourage you to plan and execute testing logically, focusing on areas of high risk and avoiding duplicate activities. Not to mention that it aligns with both US and EU regulations which govern computer system validation, 21 CFR Part 11 and Annex 11 respectively, as well as various other international standards.
By adhering to this guideline, you can significantly reduce risk when developing your product, confidently expand to new markets, and guarantee that your products are safe and fit for use.
Who uses GAMP® 5?
GAMP® 5 aims to provide a comprehensive explanation of how pharmaceutical companies should validate their computer systems. In practice, this means that these recommendations apply both to the users of automated pharmaceutical products, as well as the manufacturers who create and market them.
For users, the guideline outlines the principles that they should be aware of which assure computerized pharmaceutical products are appropriate for their intended purpose. For manufacturers, GAMP® 5 guides them to ensure their products meet necessary standards according to a risk-based approach to compliance.
The Benefits of GAMP® 5
Adhering to GAMP® 5 guidelines can offer several benefits for your organization. It provides a framework for achieving compliance with regulatory requirements while ensuring product quality and patient safety. Here are the key benefits of GAMP® 5:
Regulatory compliance
Following GAMP ® 5 aligns with FDA and EMA regulatory standards. It demands thorough and consistent documentation practices, which are crucial for regulatory audits and inspections. The structured validation framework can help your organization avoid non-compliance issues and meet regulatory requirements.
Improved efficiency
By focusing on high-risk areas, GAMP ® 5 allows you to allocate resources more efficiently, reducing unnecessary validation activities. It can help you streamline processes and cut down the time and effort needed for validation.
Mitigates risks
GAMP ® 5 can help you focus on critical areas by employing a risk-based approach. It addresses risks that could impact product quality and patient safety. GAMP ® 5 helps prevent potential issues through systematic identification and mitigation of risks, reducing the likelihood of system failures.
Higher quality and data integrity
GAMP ® 5 helps maintain the high quality of pharmaceutical products, through its structured validation process, that ensures automated systems are reliable and accurate. It emphasizes data integrity, ensuring data generated and maintained by systems is accurate, complete, and secure.
GAMP® 5 implementation challenges
Computer software validation in regulated industries can be tricky, and GAMP® 5 validation is no exception. The software categories are broad and open to interpretation, and there is often ambiguity about where a certain software application falls. This has a chain reaction effect and influences how much validation work companies put into it.
GAMP® 5 also struggles to establish clear procedural controls. Although it provides guidelines and information on validating automated systems, it does not propose a concrete procedure for checking that those processes are in fact in place. Change management and control are also somewhat lacking in this guideline, which means that new modifications along the way can put system validation at risk.
In other words, companies should not rely solely on checking off a ‘GAMP® 5 checklist’ as it were, but should rather establish a more thorough validation process which this standard forms a crucial part of.
Using a quality management system with a predefined template is the first step to expediting the validation process and making going to market a thorough and rewarding process.
Preconfigured Template to Manage and Validate GxP-Compliant Systems
Streamline pharma project validation and quality risk management with Codebeamer's pre-configured template
View TemplateWhat are the GAMP® 5 software categories?
Software categories are key to supporting the approach according to GAMP® 5 validation. To kick things off, systems are first evaluated and categorized by predefined labels depending on what the manufacturers intend to use it for and how complex the system is.
Then, rather than a “one size fits all approach”, GAMP® 5 standards recommend different lifecycles depending on the category of software the product falls into:
Infrastructure software
This refers to the operating system where the application software resides. (Examples: operating systems, databases, programming languages)
Nonconfigured products
This category includes software which can meet the requirements of the business process without modification, or is ‘used as installed’, as well as configurable software that is used but only with its default settings. (Examples: commercial off the shelf software, lab instruments, Programmable Logic controllers)
Configured products
Here the guideline describes software applications which are configured to meet user-specific business needs, which is the broadest and most complicated category of the four. (Examples: LIMS, SCADA, DCS, etc.)
Custom software
The last category includes software that is created to meet a bespoke business need. This is possibly the riskiest category, since it is often developed in-house from scratch and then customized, meaning a higher level of risk in the code.
A closer look at the contents of GAMP ® 5
As a whole, the guideline provides an interpretation of regulatory requirements in the field of pharma manufacturing, specifically, about computerized pharmaceutical production systems. First it outlines commonly used terminologies so that everyone can align on the production approach it suggests depending on the category of product. It then establishes a system lifecycle approach which covers good practices for the whole production process.
The guide also outlines a formal process of documentation, testing, and procedure that validates the necessary specifications for the product. It begins with a User Requirements Specification, which leads to a Functional Requirement and a Design Specification. The latter two elements form the foundation of a traceability matrix which creates a basis for formal testing. Testing leads to (ideally) Internal Acceptance, Factory Acceptance, and Site Acceptance.
The five main principles of GAMP® 5’s risk-based approach to compliance are as follows:
- To have a clear understanding of product and process
- To manage the system lifecycle using a quality management system To make these lifecycle activities scalable
- To verify that the approach to risk management is science-based
- To leverage supplier involvement throughout the system
If pharmaceutical companies take these guidelines on board carefully and apply them, their products will be up to standards, and they can avoid running into any complications in testing and auditing.
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