Similarities and Differences of International Practices and Procedures for the Regulation for Active Substance Master Files/Drug Master Files of Human Use: Moving Toward Regulatory Convergence.

PURPOSE: A gap analysis survey of international practices for Active Substance Master Files (ASMFs)/Drug Master Files (DMFs) of human use was conducted as a project of the ASMF/DMF working group of the International Generic Drug Regulators Pilot (IGDRP) to identify similarities and differences among ASMF/DMF procedures of 10 IGDRP members and 2 observers. METHODS: We conducted a questionnaire survey and compared the following aspects: overall ASMF/DMF procedures, submission requirements for ASMFs/DMFs, assessment processes for ASMFs/DMFs, the technical requirements for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), generation of assessment reports for ASMFs/DMFs, procedures for changing ASMF/DMF details, and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) inspection/certification of API manufacturers. Twelve organizations participated in this project: the Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), the European Union (EU), Health Canada (HC), the Singapore Health Sciences Authority (HSA), the South African Medicines Control Council (MCC), the South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), the Japanese Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA), the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products (Swissmedic), the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA), the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM) (Observer) and the Prequalification Team (PQT) of the World Health Organization (WHO), which includes the PQT-Medicines (Observer). RESULTS: Although there were many similarities among the participating agencies surveyed, there were also differences that should be discussed such as assessment processes of ASMFs/DMFs and Technical requirements for APIs. CONCLUSIONS: These differences revealed by this survey will be key considerations in order to facilitate the filing of ASMFs/DMFs globally and to establish a framework for sharing and utilizing information related to ASMFs/DMFs among IGDRP members in the future. This article is open to POST-PUBLICATION REVIEW. Registered readers (see "For Readers") may comment by clicking on ABSTRACT on the issue's contents page.

Regulatory Considerations of Bioequivalence Studies for Oral Solid Dosage Forms in Japan.

Bioequivalence (BE) studies are used to infer the therapeutic equivalence of generic drug products to original drug products throughout the world. In BE studies, bioavailability (BA) should be compared between the original and generic drug products, with BA defined as the rate and extent of absorption of active pharmaceutical ingredients or active metabolites from a product into the systemic circulation. For most of BE studies conducted during generic drug development, BA comparisons are performed in single-dose studies. In Japan, the revised "Guideline for Bioequivalence Studies of Generic Products" was made available in 2012 by the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, and generic drug development is currently conducted based on this guideline. Similarly, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency have published guidance and guideline on generic drug development. This article introduces the guideline on Japanese BE studies for oral solid dosage forms and the dissolution tests for the similarity and equivalence evaluation between the original and generic drug products. Additionally, we discuss some of the similarities and differences in guideline between Japan, the United States, and the European Union.

Regulation of Generic Drugs in Japan: the Current Situation and Future Prospects.

Generic drugs are interchangeable with original proprietary drugs, as they have the same active pharmaceutical ingredients, dosage forms, strength, quality, indications, effects, directions, and dosage. The cost of generic drugs is lower than original drugs, because the developmental cost is lower. The expansion of medical expenses is an important issue in many countries, including Japan, the USA, and Europe, and promotion of generic drugs has been demanded to solve this issue in Japan. Generic drug approval review in Japan is conducted by the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA), which reviews the equivalence of the original drugs from the viewpoint of quality, efficacy, and safety, based on documentation submitted by the generic drug applicants. However, the details of the generic drug review in Japan have not been reported. In this report, we introduce the application types, the number of applications and approvals, and the review timeline of generic drugs in Japan. In addition, we discuss recent consultations and future prospects.