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The pharmaceutical industry’s focus on extractables and leachables from packaging/delivery systems began during the mid-1990’s. Today’s regulatory agencies are more educated about the process, and drug product formulations have become more complex, which makes the need for robust extractables and leachables programs more critical than ever. In fact, failure to properly evaluate extractables and leachables has had a negative impact on many pharmaceutical companies, e.g., late-stage stability failures, submission delays, and recalls. To avoid this, the first question to ask is – “where do I start?”

In determining extractables from parenteral drug packaging systems, the FDA is clearly looking for appropriate choices of solvents, times, temperatures and other conditions that could impact the results of studies. The outcome of the studies should support the intended purpose – to allow for practical correlations and design of leachables studies.