Controlling cleaning agent residues in pharmaceutical manufacturing: A harmonized scientific strategy

This paper proposes a scientifically justified and harmonized strategy to control cleaning agent ingredients' (CAIs) residues in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Firstly, we demonstrate that worst-case cleaning validation calculations on CAI residues with representative GMP standard cleaning limits (SCLs) are enough to control CAI residues of low concern to safe levels. Secondly, a new harmonized strategy for the toxicological assessment of CAI residues is presented and validated. The results establish a framework applicable to cleaning agent mixtures based on hazard and exposure considerations. This framework is primarily based on the hierarchy of a single CAI's critical effect, where the lowest resulting limit may become the driver of the cleaning validation process. The six critical effect groups are: (1) CAIs of low concern based on safe exposure reasoning; (2) CAIs of low concern based on the mode of action reasoning; (3) CAIs with local concentration-dependent critical effects; (4) CAIs with dose-dependent systemic critical effects for which a route-specific PDE should be calculated; (5) poorly characterized CAIs with unknown critical effect for which a default value of 100 μg/day is proposed; (6) poorly characterized CAIs which should be avoided because of potential mutagenicity and/or potency.