Stability testing is a fundamental part of the drug development process— upholding the quality of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and drug products while also providing an accurate shelf life. Through stability testing, pharmaceutical companies are able to determine the most suitable packaging and/or container closure system for the storage and distribution of drug products.

“Stability storage and testing plays a big part in the drug development process from research and development up to commercialization and beyond,” said Alcami Senior Manager of Stability Services, Scott Jedrey. “Testing throughout each phase, whether it is physical or chemical, allows data to be gathered, trended, and reviewed. Based on the data, decisions are made on whether to move forward to the next phase, which includes more testing and more patients in several clinical trials. The product must possess the purity, potency, and safety throughout each phase of the drug development process in order to obtain that very important agency approval.”

Alcami’s St. Louis, Missouri Center of Excellence for advanced analytical testing was issued a Certificate of Compliance by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Tuesday, April 23, 2019, following the facility’s recent successful Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) inspection. Certification confirms the site is compliant with GMP laboratory storage and testing practices, and enables the laboratory to process more commercial products for the European Union (EU). The outcome reflects the company’s unwavering commitments to quality, reliability, responsible operations, and strict adherence to regulatory compliance.

Durham, NC (USA) – March 19, 2019 – Alcami Corporation, a leading provider of fully-integrated custom end-to-end solutions for the pharmaceutical and biologics industries, today launched Alcami Biologics, the organization’s new biopharmaceutical development, analytical testing, manufacturing, and packaging enterprise. Alcami Biologics will advance the commercialization of a wide range of biological products to treat complex medical conditions with unmet needs. This comes in response to increased market demand for outsourced biological drug development services.

Alcami recently contributed to a special feature in Drug Development and Delivery magazine titled "Outsourcing Analytical Testing: The Gateway to Drug Manufacturing."

Alcami: Customizing Programs to Meet Accelerated Product Timelines

Alcami is a CDMO that offers fully integrated, comprehensive analytical testing to support technologies for every stage of development. Its laboratory services platform is comprised of analytical testing and development services for small molecule and biologics drug products, as well as specialized offerings such as elemental impurities, abuse deterrence, and extractables and leachables. In addition, formulations development scientists address challenges related to new chemical entities.

Agency expectations are quickly evolving for the evaluation of drug product packaging and delivery systems and the surfaces used during manufacture with respect to potential leachables. Every new and generic drug product must be assessed for extractables and leachables (E&L). In this top five list, Alcami experts will address the extractables and leachables questions our experts hear most.

1. What is the difference between an extractable and a leachable?
   Extractables are compounds that can be extracted from a packaging component, delivery system, or manufacturing surface via laboratory manipulation, such as exposure to solvents or heat. Extractables can be potential leachables. Leachables are compounds that passively migrate into the drug product over time, as a result of direct contact from the packaging system, in-use componentry, or a manufacturing surface.
   
   

The new elemental impurities regulations stress the importance of controlling all sources of elemental impurities in drug products. The regulations also impact all upcoming and current commercial drug products for human use. To comply with these regulations, it is critical to have an efficient, cost-effective, and agency-accepted approach.

Elemental impurities can contaminate or leach into a drug product from multiple sources (i.e. drug substance, excipients, water, equipment, and container closure systems), therefore, it is no longer acceptable to monitor the inlet raw materials only. A conservative risk-based approach is recommended, which should address all potential sources of elemental impurities. If it can be demonstrated that the elemental impurities present in the drug product are under control (less than the control threshold for three lots), then analysis at release is not needed. 

According to Dr. John Metcalfe, “pharmaceutical companies go to great lengths to manufacture a drug product which is sterile, whether by terminal sterilization or aseptic processing. Equally important to the microbiological quality of the product at the time of product release is its microbiological quality at the time of patient administration.” This Q & A featuring microbial in-use studies with microbiological expert, Brent Harlow, will address the most common questions asked about these studies.

Join Alcami for a webinar to learn more about submitting samples through Alcami OnDemand, a customer portal that provides clients unprecedented and rapid access and visualization into ongoing projects. 

Using Alcami OnDemand to submit Analytical Testing projects is a simple process that will save you time and streamline project tracking. This webinar will detail the finer points of online sample submission. We will show you how to build a sample submission project in Alcami OnDemand and walk you through the following processes:

Alcami OnDemand™ is a customer-focused portal giving you the power to know where your results are at all times. Alcami OnDemand (AOD) features quoting tools, project tracking, material and test reference libraries, a progressive messaging center, and central file repository. AOD provides you with the ability to build a custom sample submission quote quickly and track major milestones within your project.

Alcami’s new features and enhancements to the platform allow for a more user-friendly and intuitive system. Our mission is to continuously bring first-to-market initiatives to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries— further increasing our commitment to our clients and their patients. Improved features include:

Durham, NC (USA) – October 25, 2018 – Alcami Corporation, a leading provider of fully-integrated custom end-to-end solutions for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, announced today its collaboration with Medicines Development for Global Health (MDGH), a not-for-profit Australian biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of affordable medicines and vaccines for neglected diseases prevalent in low and middle-income countries. MDGH recently received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of moxidectin, a novel new drug for the treatment of river blindness (onchocerciasis). MDGH utilized Alcami’s advanced analytical testing services and industry-leading accelerated turnaround time offering to meet critical approval deadlines.