Industry perspective on a holistic container closure integrity approach to parenteral combination products

Biologics are being developed more and more as parenteral combination products with drug delivery devices. The maintenance of sterility is imperative for such medical devices throughout their life cycle. Therefore, the container closure integrity (CCI) should, preferably, be built into the overall process, and not just demonstrated during the final testing of the combination product. The integrity is an important Critical Quality Attribute (CQA) and in the scope of specific considerations and studies during the combination product life cycle i.e., design robustness, assembly processes, storage (to end of shelf life), and shipping prior to patient use. The goal of this paper is to summarize an industry holistic approach to ensure CCI, for a combination product, and to build a scientifically based justification that Quality (in terms of CCI) is built into the overall process. Current analytical approaches used for characterization or Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) CCI testing during combination product development will be described. However, the use of quality by design (QbD) during product development can reduce or eliminate routine batch level or stability testing of the combination product.

A Multicompany Survey Study for Helium Leak Container Closure Integrity Test

All products labeled as sterile are required to be free of microbial contamination throughout their shelf life (obligatory CQA). Container Closure Integrity (CCI) needs to be addressed with a holistic lifecycle strategy comprising adequate primary packaging components selection and the assessment of critical unit operations and Critical process parameters (CPPs) according to quality by design (QbD) principals. The Helium leak method is currently the most sensitive CCI test method and preferably used for the initial container closure system (CCS) qualification and characterization studies. Currently, two different measuring principals are used in the pharmaceutical industry and no data is available in the public domain for typical method performance parameters such as accuracy, precision, intermediate-precision, and limit of quantification of the method. Furthermore, the performance of different types and sizes of artificial leaks as well as certified helium leak standards has not yet been characterized across different test laboratories. In this intercompany study, we prepared 17 artificially prepared leak samples using the most common types of artificial leaks in relevant nominal size ranges which are commercially available or can be easily prepared in a laboratory. Each participating lab did generate results according to their in-house methods applying their established test parameters as the aim of the round robin study was not to create a standard for Helium leak measurements, but to compare real world performance between different laboratories.