RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Multisite Qualification of an Automated Incubator and Colony Counter for Environmental and Bioburden Applications in Pharmaceutical Microbiology
JF PDA Journal of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology
JO PDA J Pharm Sci Technol
FD Parenteral Drug Association (PDA)
SP 236
OP 247
DO 10.5731/pdajpst.2022.012742
VO 77
IS 3
A1 Anders, Hans Joachim
A1 Männle, Daniel
A1 Carpenter, William
A1 Eder, Wolfgang
A1 Heckel, Ivana
A1 Götzen, Tobias
A1 Oechslin, Corinne
A1 Joossen, Cedric
A1 Parra, Maria Eugenia Giribets
A1 Rose, Jason
A1 Shah, Vaishali
A1 Jones, David L
YR 2023
UL http://journal.pda.org/content/77/3/236.abstract
AB Traditional microbiological techniques have been used for well over a century as the basis for contamination testing of pharmaceutical products and processes. With more recent focus on faster product release and concerns around the integrity of the test data, new technologies have been implemented to detect and enumerate organisms faster and provide paperless processes to minimize data integrity issues. Manual colony counting technologies, where incubation is performed in a standard incubator, and the plate is manually transferred to the colony counter for a single read at the end of incubation, have been used for many years to reduce the potential for human error; however, they pose validation challenges due to poor counting accuracy. Colony counters that automatically perform both the incubation and enumeration functions (multiple enumeration calculations through the incubation phase) have recently been implemented for quality control (QC) laboratory analytical processes, supporting a cGMP environment. This article summarizes the findings of eight companies demonstrating the qualification of an automated colony counter technology to perform the majority of microbial tests required for QC, environmental monitoring, and bioburden for in-process, bulk drug substance, and water system testing. Comparable analytical performance and time to result data generated during individual studies at all companies allows the system to be qualified and implemented for cGMP processes while reducing data integrity risks.