5 Top Tips for Calibration Success

Article By Darren Jones, Director & Senior Consultant for EPiC Auditors

Calibration is an often-overlooked area of the PQS; many calibration certificates are incorrect or don’t contain adequate detail and in many cases are not understood by the site experts!

Calibration services are frequently outsourced and I often find that key GMP decisions have also been inappropriately outsourced as well! Does the calibration company set the limits? Who determines how and when out of specification results are reported?

Many certificates do not state Pass or Fail… Why not? The certificates often just contain the limits and the data. I regularly find calibration results that do not comply with the limits- the calculations have not been done and no one in the Pharma company has checked the data!

Limits are sometimes specified as +/-2% of FSD (full scale deflection). What does this mean? Often the method of calculating this is not clear and the calculations used to determine this limit are not recorded or checked.

Given accurate instrumentation is key to achieving process control, which ultimately assures product quality, calibration requirements need to be understood and properly managed.

Tips for success:

1. Use multi-point calibration over the working range of the instrument.
2. Ensure you set, or at least approve the limits applied during calibration, don’t leave this just to the contractor.
3. Have a contract with the provider that includes instruments, frequency, limits, ranges and out of specification results reporting. Appendices containing tables can be useful to manage the detailed information.
4. Ensure results are reported as found and as left, i.e. pre and post any adjustment, you don’t want to miss a failed as found result.
5. Ensure limits are clearly understood. The SOP should show how to calculate limits e.g. based on FSD and these calculations should be documented and checked as per any other important calculation.  Evaluate the limits using Pass/Fail criteria.

If you need our help and support then please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Telephone: +44 (0)1244 980544 or email us at enquiries@epic-auditors.com

EPiC Auditors Awarded Top 5 Quality Assurance Services Companies in the UK

We are delighted to announce that EPiC Auditors have won a place in Pharma Tech Outlook’s Top 5 Quality Assurance Services Companies in the UK 2022, the annual listing of 5 companies in the UK that are at the forefront of providing Quality Assurance services and transforming businesses in the region.

Specialising in performing mock inspections, GXP audits, supply chain and system audits, delivering bespoke training and supporting post-inspection remediation EPiC Auditors help clients achieve and maintain regulatory compliance.

Comprising of an experienced group of ex-MHRA Inspectors, the EPiC management team and consultants fully understand clients’ diverse needs and can therefore advise the best course of action to address the challenges they face and make their operations compliant with MHRA and EU regulations and guidelines by providing comprehensive GXP consultancy service.

As ex MHRA inspectors, EPiC Auditors is able to bridge the gap between pharmaceutical companies and the regulatory bodies, making us ideally placed to provide the knowledge, skills and expertise to drive sustainable compliance across the UK and Europe’s pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

You can access the Pharma Tech Outlook Magazine Quality Assurance Edition and read the full feature article here: https://www.pharmatechoutlook.com/magazines/May2022/Quality_Assurance_Europe/?digitalmagazine

Another ex MHRA Inspector Joins the EPiC Team

EPIC Auditors is very pleased to announce that Ex MHRA Inspector Michelle Yeomans will be joining us on 7^th April to fulfil the role of EPIC Auditors Operations Manager. 

EPIC Auditors was established in 2014 by Liz Allanson and Darren Jones (both ex MHRA) to fulfil the increasing need for ex MHRA Inspectors to conduct mock regulatory inspections and to provide consultancy advice from the Regulatory perspective. The company has developed considerably over the last 8 years and Michelle has been appointed to further strengthen the management team and assist with the day to day operation of the business.

Michelle is well known to the pharmaceutical industry having been in the MHRA GMP/GDP management team for many years and been a familiar face at many MHRA GMP/GDP and GCP Symposia.  Michelle has completed 17 years in the MHRA starting as a GCP Inspector, progressing to Senior Inspector and gaining accreditation for GMP inspections of manufacturers of clinical trials, before moving to become a GMDP Operations Manager and ultimately the GMDP Inspectorate Unit Manager.

Michelle brings to EPiC not only the considerable length of service in the MHRA, at both Senior Inspector and senior management level, but also excellent organisational skills, and 19 years previous experience working and auditing in the pharmaceutical industry.  Michelle held positions in Technical and QA roles with various pharmaceutical companies and operated as an IMP Transitional QP prior to joining the MHRA.

Over the years Michelle has engaged extensively with the industry and we are sure this will continue as she works with our clients to help them to improve their GXP quality systems and regulatory compliance.

We are really excited about Michelle joining our team, and acknowledge the skills that she will bring to improving our own quality systems as well as those of our clients.

You can read more about Michelle’s background and qualifications as well as meet the rest of the EPiC Auditors Team here: Meet The Team

If you need our help and support then please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Telephone: +44 (0)1244 980544 or email us at enquiries@epic-auditors.com

We at EPiC Auditors Ltd will be running our very first virtual GMP pharma compliance conference on Tuesday 1st February 2022. The theme is Back to the Present; an opportunity to see what you’ve missed during the pandemic and what’s on the horizon.

This virtual GMP symposium will be a full day delivered remotely comprising a variety of ex MHRA Inspector speakers with an invited guest MHRA GMDP Inspectorate speaker. Altogether it will be a thought-provoking and informative day, with a few laughs along the way.

The EPiC GMP pharma compliance conference is ideal for pharmaceutical industry professionals in quality control, quality assurance, supply chain and production management, as well as Qualified Persons, regulatory and compliance specialists involved in the manufacturing of medicines.

The day will provide you with the latest information and guidance on changing legislation and give you insight into what you might have missed since the start of the pandemic. Through presentations on current deficiency trends and an IAG case study, you will learn how to maintain a compliant PQS and better manage remote inspections.

Richard Andrews, Managing Director and Senior Consultant for EPiC says, “We are really excited to be delivering this symposium and to be sharing the collective knowledge of the ex-MHRA Inspectors working for EPiC Auditors. The regulations, guidance and expectations are continually evolving and companies need to ensure they stay up to date to remain compliant.”

Tickets cost £250.00 and include Multi-attendee discounts – book one place at the full price and book up to three further places at the same time at a 50% discount.

This event is brought to you in collaboration with SeerPharma UK

To buy tickets follow the link below.

Trust us: IAG is not an acronym that you want to be too familiar with. It stands for Inspection Action Group, the multidisciplinary team at the MHRA that determines whether your organisation maintains or loses its manufacturing or wholesale dealers licence.

It may be surprising to some of you that after 50 years plus of pharmaceutical legislation and GMP/GDP regulations that 3-4 companies a month still find themselves being referred to IAG with the potential of having their licences suspended or coming under strict and costly surveillance by the MHRA Compliance Management Team.

However, this is not so surprising to us in the EPIC Auditors team. Most of us are ex MHRA Inspectors, and we know only too well that any change in the Senior Management of a company can have a significant effect on the quality mindset and compliance level of a site.

Hopefully it will be for the better but sadly all too often it is for the worse. Most of the companies that we work with require our help because the quality focus at senior level is inadequate. It is still rare to see a Quality Director on the Board of Directors and this role should be seen as important as that of the Finance Director and Operations Director. If all Senior Management Teams had the Quality training and Quality understanding required to run the business in a cost effective and compliant manner, then we might see a reduction in Inspection Action Group cases at MHRA.

It is our opinion that anyone appointed to a Senior Management Team role should undergo mandatory training in Quality Management and ICH Q 10 principles.  Those companies that we have provided this training for will hopefully endorse our thinking. It is a requirement of GMP that all employees have training in Quality Management and this includes the Senior Management Team. Failures to implement an appropriate Pharmaceutical Quality System and to conduct suitable and effective quality management reviews with the involvement of senior management, feature in the top 10 deficiencies raised by MHRA year on year. Ensuring the Senior Management Team are aware of and are trained in their quality role and responsibilities, should lead to fewer companies facing the threat of IAG.