US-FDA-Sterile-Drug-Products-Produced-by-Aseptic-Processing

This guidance is intended to help manufacturers meet the requirements in the Agency's current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) regulations (2l CFR parts 210 and 211) when manufacturing sterile drug and biological products using aseptic processing. This guidance replaces the 1987 Industry Guideline on Sterile Drug Products Produced by Aseptic Processing (Aseptic Processing Guideline). This revision updates and clarifies the 1987 guidance. 

For sterile drug products subject to a new or abbreviated drug application (NDA or ANDA) or a biologic license application (BLA), this guidance document should be read in conjunction with the guidance on the content of sterile drug applications entitled Guideline for the Submission of Documentation for Sterilization Process Validation in Applications for Human and Veterinary Drug Products (Submission Guidance). The Submission Guidance describes the types of information and data that should be included in drug applications to demonstrate the efficacy of a manufacturer's sterilization process. This guidance compliments the Submission Guidance by describing procedures and practices that will help enable a sterile drug manufacturing facility to meet CGMP requirements relating, for example, to facility design,  equipment suitability, process validation, and quality control.

FDA's guidance documents, including this guidance, do not establish legally enforceable responsibilities. Instead, guidances describe the Agency's current thinking on a topic and should be viewed only as recommendations, unless specific regulatory or statutory requirements are cited. The use of the word should in Agency guidances means that something is suggested or recommended, but not required. 

The text boxes included in this guidance include specific sections of parts 210 and 211 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), which address current good manufacturing practice for drugs. The intent of including these quotes in the text boxes is to aid the reader by providing a portion of an applicable regulation being addressed in the guidance. The quotes included in the text boxes are not intended to be exhaustive. Readers of this document should reference the complete CFR to ensure that they have complied, in full, with all relevant sections of the regulations. 

This guidance pertains to current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) regulations (21 CFR parts 210 and 211) when manufacturing sterile drug and biological products using aseptic processing. Although the focus of this guidance is on CGMPs in 21 CFR 210 and 211, supplementary requirements for biological products are in 21 CFR 600-680. For biological products regulated under 21 CFR parts 600 through 680, §§ 210.2(a) and 211.1(b) provide that where it is impossible to comply with the applicable regulations in both parts 600 through 680 and parts 210 and 211, the regulation specifically applicable to the drug product in question shall supercede the more general regulations. 

There are basic differences between the production of sterile drug products using aseptic processing and production using terminal sterilization.

Terminal sterilization usually involves filling and sealing product containers under high-quality environmental conditions. Products are filled and sealed in this type of environment to minimize the microbial and particulate content of the in-process product and to help ensure that the subsequent sterilization process is successful. In most cases, the product, container, and closure have low bioburden, but they are not sterile. The product in its final container is then subjected to a sterilization process such as heat or irradiation.

In an aseptic process, the drug product, container, and closure are first subjected to sterilization methods separately, as appropriate, and then brought together.2

Because there is no process to sterilize the product in its final container, it is critical that containers be filled and sealed in an extremely high-quality environment. Aseptic processing involves more variables than terminal sterilization. Before aseptic assembly into a final product, the individual parts of the final product