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Parenteral Packaging Changing Due To The Current E&L Issues

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Managing Quality and Regulatory Risks in Pharmaceutical Technology Transfer

Technology transfer moves more than manufacturing instructions. It moves process knowledge, supplier dependencies, labeling requirements, packaging specifications, and the evidence needed to demonstrate control. For medical device manufacturers, including those supporting drug-device combination products, these interfaces can become recurring sources of compliance gaps during site transitions, acquisitions, and remediation. The central problem is often not a missing procedure. It is a quality system that allows connected activities to change independently. A label revision may be approved while packaging artwork, supplier instructions, or production-system data still reflect an obsolete version. Staying inspection-ready requires manufacturers to manage these dependencies as one controlled system. Why Compliance Gaps Keep Recurring Findings are treated as documentation defects Revising a procedure can resolve an immediate discrepancy without changing the behavior that caused it. If unclear decision rights, weak escalation, or ineffective training remain, the same failure may surface elsewhere. Corrective and preventive action should distinguish the observed finding from its underlying cause and establish how effectiveness will be demonstrated. Ownership is divided across connected functions Quality, Regulatory Affairs, labeling, packaging engineering, operations, suppliers, and digital-system owners often maintain separate workflows. Each team may complete its assigned task while an interface remains uncontrolled. For example, changing an instruction for use can affect packaging configuration, translations, technical documentation, inventory disposition, and release controls. Transitions expose unresolved weaknesses Acquisitions and site transfers can introduce conflicting procedures, incomplete knowledge transfer, or different assumptions about validated processes. Regulatory changes add further demands. When these events coincide with CAPA or change-control backlogs, teams may prioritize administrative closure over risk reduction. Without a coordinated impact assessment, local fixes can create new gaps downstream. Establish the Regulatory Baseline Inspection readiness starts with knowing which requirements apply to the product, activity, and market. Pharmaceutical, device, and combination-product obligations are not interchangeable; transfer planning should identify the applicable requirements rather than assume one quality framework covers every operation. According to FDA’s Quality Management System Regulation overview and FAQs, the QMSR became effective on February 2, 2026, incorporates ISO 13485:2016 by reference, and introduced the updated device inspection process under Compliance Program 7382.850. ISO 13485 certification does not exempt a manufacturer from FDA inspection or guarantee compliance with FDA requirements. For devices marketed in the European Union, Regulation (EU) 2017/745, Annex I, Section 23, provides the primary requirements for information supplied with devices, including labels and instructions for use. Teams should assess the applicable provisions alongside relevant language, product-specific, and market requirements. A labeling review should therefore evaluate required content and consistency with the device’s intended purpose and supporting documentation—not merely artwork accuracy. How to Identify the Real Gaps Begin with a cross-functional assessment that follows actual product and information flows. Select representative transfers, label changes, supplier changes, and CAPAs, then trace each from initiation through implementation and effectiveness review. Map dependencies: Identify affected specifications, suppliers, packaging components, systems, validation activities, and training. Compare records with practice: Check whether approved procedures match what operators and reviewers actually do. Test traceability: Follow a requirement through technical documentation, labeling, production instructions, and release evidence. Examine recurrence: Look for repeated deviations, reopened actions, overdue changes, and findings shared across sites. Assess capacity: Determine whether qualified owners have enough time and authority to complete corrective work. Prioritize gaps by potential patient or user harm, regulatory impact, likelihood of recurrence, and detectability. Document the rationale; an old overdue item is not automatically more important than a newly identified high-risk weakness. Align Quality, Labeling, Packaging, and Change Control Create a coordinated remediation plan with one accountable owner for each action, named contributors, acceptance criteria, and required evidence. Separate immediate containment from systemic correction. Containment might prevent obsolete labels from being issued; correction might redesign approval and implementation controls so obsolete versions cannot return. Use change control as the integration point. Before approval, evaluate effects on regulatory submissions or notifications, technical documentation, supplier controls, packaging performance, validation, electronic master data, inventory, and training. Record both identified impacts and justified decisions that particular activities are unaffected. During technology transfer, define readiness gates before production or release responsibilities move. These should address the transfer of process knowledge, acceptance criteria, receiving-site capability, required qualification or validation, approved documents, and personnel competence. The appropriate evidence depends on the product and process; a generic checklist cannot replace a documented assessment. Finally, verify implementation where the work happens. Confirm that current instructions are available, suppliers received approved requirements, systems contain correct versions, and affected personnel can perform their tasks. A signed approval is not evidence that every downstream change took effect. Mistakes That Undermine Inspection Readiness Closing CAPAs on task completion alone: Effectiveness checks should test whether the underlying failure has been controlled. Updating labels in isolation: Assess packaging, supplier, system, documentation, and inventory consequences. Counting closures instead of evidence: Dashboards need defensible records behind their status indicators. ...

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In mid-2018, nitrosamine content, also called NDMA, was found to go beyond the guidelines when it came to the daily intake limits of a hypertension medicine that is widely used and has potentially carcinogenic effects for patients. What thereafter followed was a detailed risk evaluation in terms of all the drug products that are relevant, thereby leading to over 1400 product lots being recalled from the market by September 2020.

In mid-2021, the picture went on to worsen when a range of drugs happened to be recalled because of the presence of numerous other nitrosamine drug substance related impurities. As per a 2023 paper, industry as well as regulators now happen to be in a challenging situation where NDSRIs may as well be present in hundreds of medicinal products, some of them even affecting whole bunches of essential drug classes like β-blockers.

At first identified almost four decades ago, nitrosamines happen to be ubiquitous carcinogens that are generally present in water and food. As underscored by the events that have taken place in the last 6 years, nitrosamines can go on to form in drug products by way of chemical reactions that happen to take place across manufacturing. The EMA has also gone on to publish a list of the causes pertaining to nitrosamine formation within pharmaceutical products. These happened to have the usage of contaminated raw materials within the gamut of API manufacturing, the usage of recovered materials, as well as cross-contamination when it comes to manufacturing lines.

Packaging materials, which happen to be a source of E&L

Because of their quite prolonged contract with the drug product, packaging components have always been a potential source in terms of contamination, with impurities going from primary packaging materials into products in the form of extractables and leachables. When it comes to nitrosamines, contaminants can go on to crop up from the reactions of the residual amine impurities having a nitrosating source within the excipient in terms of packaging materials or also from reactions of nitrosating sources within the drug formulation having residual amines in the packaging. It is well to be noted that nitrocellulose blister packs happen to be a major concern, however, there is also a well-known link between rubber, which is an important material used in the container closure systems of injectable products, and nitrosamines.

But as per the Material Development Manager with Datwyler, Dr. Tine Hardeman, a parenteral packaging provider, it is not always bad news since the typical link that is made between the rubber and the nitrosamines happens to be no longer valid in terms of most of the rubbers that are used in parenteral packaging in the times of today.

Because of the history of advancements in chemistry that have gone on to decrease the dependence of the sector on antioxidants as well as additives in terms of rubber formulations blended with major enhancements to the cross-linking systems, along with the inception of coating technology, today’s pharma rubber happens to be most often classified as having an ultra-low extractable as well as leachable content.

As per Dr. Hardeman, with time, major progress has been made in the sector, and it is indeed challenging, or one may say next to impossible, to completely limit the extractables amount; however, it has indeed been pretty greatly decreased when one compares the older formulation with the new ones.

The evolution when it comes to pharmaceutical rubber

Dr. Hardeman goes on to describe the complete evolution of pharma elastomers, right from  natural rubber compounds to those that are synthetic in nature, such as BIMs.

In spite of offering some incredible elastic properties, natural rubber happens to be often recalled for its capacity to cause anaphylaxis in individuals with latex allergies. Even after the sector went on to eradicate the latex allergens through switching to synthetic polyisoprene, drug manufacturers still happen to be dealing with the poor gas barrier traits of elastomers as well as an unclean crosslinking system.

Crosslinking processes happen to be fundamental in terms of achieving the desirable mechanical properties; however, the system that is used for polyisoprene goes on to involve a very slow reaction between zinc and sulfur that needs accelerators such as thiuram.

Dr. Hardeman adds that pretty rapidly, a shift has been made towards butyl rubber, which happens to have a much lower gas permeability. She adds that it is still quite a challenging way to cross link that leads to not-so-clean rubber, which is why halobutyl rubber got introduced. Notably, like its predecessor, halobutyl happened to come with a naturally low gas permeability, and the major enhancement was in the cleaner crosslinking system that the compound enabled on halogenation with bromine and chlorine, which happened to speed up the process quite significantly.

Due to all this, the material tends to become very reactive in itself, which means that one has to add less harsh chemicals so as to get the crosslinking reaction going, says Dr. Hardeman. It is this very avoidance when it comes to accelerators that has safeguarded modern container closure systems by way of nitrosamine formation.

It is well to be noted that accelerators go on to generate secondary amines, which happen to be potential nitrosamine precursors. Being able to eradicate accelerators in the formulation recipe hence expels the concerned nitrosamine risk.

The latest generation of pharmaceutical rubber

While halobutyl went on to address numerous issues that drug manufacturers had gone on to be experiencing for many decades, there still happened to be a room for enhancement, specifically in terms of packaging large-molecule drugs that happen to be especially sensitive to interactions with E&L.

The fact is that pharmaceutical rubber formulations have clearly come of age, however, the scientists are consistently looking out for ways for more enhancement. Although the sector’s updated nitrosamine crisis cannot be held back by modern pharmaceutical rubber, all this still happen to be serving as a reminder of the requirement for advancing materials so as to strive for much higher levels in terms of cleanliness as well as quality.

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Managing Quality and Regulatory Risks in Pharmaceutical Technology Transfer

Technology transfer moves more than manufacturing instructions. It moves process knowledge, supplier dependencies, labeling requirements, packaging specifications, and the evidence needed to demonstrate control. For medical device manufacturers, including those supporting drug-device combination products, these interfaces can become recurring sources of compliance gaps during site transitions, acquisitions, and remediation. The central problem is often not a missing procedure. It is a quality system that allows connected activities to change independently. A label revision may be approved while packaging artwork, supplier instructions, or production-system data still reflect an obsolete version. Staying inspection-ready requires manufacturers to manage these dependencies as one controlled system. Why Compliance Gaps Keep Recurring Findings are treated as documentation defects Revising a procedure can resolve an immediate discrepancy without changing the behavior that caused it. If unclear decision rights, weak escalation, or ineffective training remain, the same failure may surface elsewhere. Corrective and preventive action should distinguish the observed finding from its underlying cause and establish how effectiveness will be demonstrated. Ownership is divided across connected functions Quality, Regulatory Affairs, labeling, packaging engineering, operations, suppliers, and digital-system owners often maintain separate workflows. Each team may complete its assigned task while an interface remains uncontrolled. For example, changing an instruction for use can affect packaging configuration, translations, technical documentation, inventory disposition, and release controls. Transitions expose unresolved weaknesses Acquisitions and site transfers can introduce conflicting procedures, incomplete knowledge transfer, or different assumptions about validated processes. Regulatory changes add further demands. When these events coincide with CAPA or change-control backlogs, teams may prioritize administrative closure over risk reduction. Without a coordinated impact assessment, local fixes can create new gaps downstream. Establish the Regulatory Baseline Inspection readiness starts with knowing which requirements apply to the product, activity, and market. Pharmaceutical, device, and combination-product obligations are not interchangeable; transfer planning should identify the applicable requirements rather than assume one quality framework covers every operation. According to FDA’s Quality Management System Regulation overview and FAQs, the QMSR became effective on February 2, 2026, incorporates ISO 13485:2016 by reference, and introduced the updated device inspection process under Compliance Program 7382.850. ISO 13485 certification does not exempt a manufacturer from FDA inspection or guarantee compliance with FDA requirements. For devices marketed in the European Union, Regulation (EU) 2017/745, Annex I, Section 23, provides the primary requirements for information supplied with devices, including labels and instructions for use. Teams should assess the applicable provisions alongside relevant language, product-specific, and market requirements. A labeling review should therefore evaluate required content and consistency with the device’s intended purpose and supporting documentation—not merely artwork accuracy. How to Identify the Real Gaps Begin with a cross-functional assessment that follows actual product and information flows. Select representative transfers, label changes, supplier changes, and CAPAs, then trace each from initiation through implementation and effectiveness review. Map dependencies: Identify affected specifications, suppliers, packaging components, systems, validation activities, and training. Compare records with practice: Check whether approved procedures match what operators and reviewers actually do. Test traceability: Follow a requirement through technical documentation, labeling, production instructions, and release evidence. Examine recurrence: Look for repeated deviations, reopened actions, overdue changes, and findings shared across sites. Assess capacity: Determine whether qualified owners have enough time and authority to complete corrective work. Prioritize gaps by potential patient or user harm, regulatory impact, likelihood of recurrence, and detectability. Document the rationale; an old overdue item is not automatically more important than a newly identified high-risk weakness. Align Quality, Labeling, Packaging, and Change Control Create a coordinated remediation plan with one accountable owner for each action, named contributors, acceptance criteria, and required evidence. Separate immediate containment from systemic correction. Containment might prevent obsolete labels from being issued; correction might redesign approval and implementation controls so obsolete versions cannot return. Use change control as the integration point. Before approval, evaluate effects on regulatory submissions or notifications, technical documentation, supplier controls, packaging performance, validation, electronic master data, inventory, and training. Record both identified impacts and justified decisions that particular activities are unaffected. During technology transfer, define readiness gates before production or release responsibilities move. These should address the transfer of process knowledge, acceptance criteria, receiving-site capability, required qualification or validation, approved documents, and personnel competence. The appropriate evidence depends on the product and process; a generic checklist cannot replace a documented assessment. Finally, verify implementation where the work happens. Confirm that current instructions are available, suppliers received approved requirements, systems contain correct versions, and affected personnel can perform their tasks. A signed approval is not evidence that every downstream change took effect. Mistakes That Undermine Inspection Readiness Closing CAPAs on task completion alone: Effectiveness checks should test whether the underlying failure has been controlled. Updating labels in isolation: Assess packaging, supplier, system, documentation, and inventory consequences. Counting closures instead of evidence: Dashboards need defensible records behind their status indicators. ...

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