Quality by Design for Biopharmaceuticals

Quality by Design (QbD) is a new framework currently being implemented by the FDA, as well as EU and Japanese regulatory agencies, to ensure better understanding of the process so as to yield a consistent and high-quality pharmaceutical product. QbD breaks from past approaches in assuming that drug quality cannot be tested into products; rather, it must be built into every step of the product creation process.

Quality by Design: Perspectives and Case Studies presents the first systematic approach to QbD in the biotech industry. A comprehensive resource, it combines an in-depth explanation of basic concepts with real-life case studies that illustrate the practical aspects of QbD implementation.

In this single source, leading authorities from the biotechnology industry and the FDA discuss such topics as:

• The understanding and development of the product's critical quality attributes (CQA)
• Development of the design space for a manufacturing process
• How to employ QbD to design a formulation process
• Raw material analysis and control strategy for QbD
• Process Analytical Technology (PAT) and how it relates to QbD
• Relevant PAT tools and applications for the pharmaceutical industry
• The uses of risk assessment and management in QbD
• Filing QbD information in regulatory documents
• The application of multivariate data analysis (MVDA) to QbD

Filled with vivid case studies that illustrate QbD at work in companies today, Quality by Design is a core reference for scientists in the biopharmaceutical industry, regulatory agencies, and students.

Rohin Mhatre is a Senior Director in the BioProcess Development department at Biogen Idec, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has been with the company since 1996. His group is responsible for development of analytical methods and product characterization to support the process and formulation development of early and late stage clinical programs. Mhatre is also leading the QbD initiative within Biogen Idec. He has authored several publications and been an invited speaker to numerous scientific meetings.