Apotex Inc. — FDA Warning Letter Findings

Your firm failed to establish and follow appropriate written procedures that are designed to prevent microbiological contamination of drug products purporting to be sterile, and that include validation of all aseptic and sterilization processes. Your firm also failed to perform operations within specifically defined areas of adequate size and to have separate or defined areas or such other control systems necessary to prevent contamination or mix-ups in aseptic processing…

Your firm failed to clean, maintain, and, as appropriate for the nature of the drug, sanitize and/or sterilize equipment and utensils at appropriate intervals to prevent malfunctions or contamination that would alter the safety, identity, strength, quality, or purity of the drug product beyond the official or other established requirements (21 CFR 211.67(a)). You failed to adequately maintain your equipment. For example, during the inspection, our investigators observed…

Your firm failed to thoroughly investigate any unexplained discrepancy or failure of a batch or any of its components to meet any of its specifications, whether or not the batch has already been distributed (21 CFR 211.192). Your firm failed to conduct adequate investigations for your (b)(4) solutions, (b)(4) solutions, and (b)(4) spray drug products distributed to the U.S. market. For example, you did not properly investigate critical equipment failures and…