GMP data integrity definitions

Data integrity is fundamental in a pharmaceutical quality system which ensures that medicines are of the required quality.

In a new document, the U.K. MHRA provides guidance on GMP data integrity expectations for the pharmaceutical industry. This guidance is intended to complement existing EU GMP, and should be read in conjunction with national medicines legislation and the GMP standards published in Eudralex volume 4.

The data governance system should be integral to the pharmaceutical quality system described in EU GMP chapter 1. The effort and resource assigned to data governance should be commensurate with the risk to product quality, and should also be balanced with other quality assurance resource demands. As such, manufacturers and analytical laboratories are not expected to implement a forensic approach to data checking, but instead design and operate a system which provides an acceptable state of control based on the data integrity risk, and which is fully documented with supporting rationale.

Data integrity requirements apply equally to manual (paper) and electronic data. Manufacturers and analytical laboratories should be aware that reverting from automated / computerised to manual / paper-based systems will not in itself remove the need for data integrity controls. This may also constitute a failure to comply with Article 23 of Directive 2001/83/EC, which requires an authorisation holder to take account of scientific and technical progress and enable the medicinal product to be manufactured and checked by means of generally accepted scientific methods.

For details, see MHRA

Posted by Tim Sandle