SOP on New Product Design and Development Process
Objective : To lay down a Procedure for New Product Design and Development Process.
Scope : This Standard Operating Procedure is applicable all pharmaceutical formulation plants/ operations.
Responsibility
Head, Clinical Research : Conducting Clinical Trials as per the Good Clinical Practices and review and compilation of data for DCGI permission.
Head, RA : Compilation of data for the application of manufacturing License and applying for manufacturing License.
Head, Materials Managements : Arrangement of Raw Materials, Machine change parts for the product development & initiation of vendor approval.
Head, Production : Ensuring availability of machine change parts and facility arrangement for manufacturing of new product and if required assistance in purchasing of new machine, training of existing / new production personnel related to new product manufacturing process.
Head, QA : Vendor approval, artwork approval, distribution of all required document to concerned department for the launch of the product, review of stability data, review of product development report, product specification report, scale-up batches report & also review of analytical method validations and qualification data of new equipment.
Head, QA (M) and Market Research :To provide New Product details & requirements to R&D.
Head, R&D : Initiation of product development at laboratory scale.
All Heads : Responsible for compliance to the procedure and continuous sending of updated current status of Product under development to QA.
Abbreviations and Definitions
NPDC : New Product Development Committee, A group generally comprising Heads of all operational departments i.e. QA, QC, Production, Materials Management, Marketing, QA (M) & Market Research, R&D, Clinical Research, RA and committee being headed by Joint Managing Director.
NPDP :New Product Development Process
NPLAC :New Product Launch Activity Chart
PDR :Product Development Report
Phase :Distinct period or stage in the process of development of product
PSR : Product Specification Report
SUP :Scale-up Batch Report
Procedure : New Product Development Process shall be handled in phases. All the phases shall be executed simultaneously or sequentially as per requirement during new product design / development process. (Also, Refer Annexure-8 for sequence of execution of various activities during new product design and development process)
Phase I : The NPDC shall discuss conceptually about the new product(s) development status at the R&D in the NPDP meetings. All the committee members shall contribute their suggestion for the development of new product and plan the strategy to launch the product(s). Based on the discussions respective marketing head shall identify the products under development or shall suggest the New Products’ requirements as per the market needs.
Phase II : Depending on the product’s requirement in the market, Head-QA (M) & Market Research shall initiate ‘New Product Development Request’ (Annexure-1) in coordination with respective Marketing head and shall fill all the details mentioned in the ‘New Product Development Request’.
Head, QA (M) & Market Research shall assign New Product Development Number having nine characters as NPDXXX/YY, where
NPD : Stands for New Product Development
XXX : Denotes serial number of the request starting from 001 to 999.
YY : Denotes respective year of the request.
A new series shall commence at the beginning of every calendar year.
E.g.: A fifth request for the new product development for the year 2025 shall be numbered as NPD005/25.
Head, QA (M) & Market Research shall forward filled ‘New Product Development Request’ to the Head-R&D.
If required Head, QA- Market Research shall provide innovator / reference product available in the market to the R&D.
Phase III : Head, FRD shall go through all the details of the identified product mentioned in the New Product Development Request and shall proceed for the development of the new product at the laboratory scale.
FRD and Packaging Development (R&D) personnel shall develop specifications of the Raw and Packaging Material respectively required for the new product development. At the same time Analytical Research and Development Department shall develop STP for the specified raw material/packaging material.
Head, FRD shall raise the requisition for the raw/packaging material along with the tentative specifications and machine change parts / new machine for the product development & forward it to the Head-Materials Management.
Materials Management shall procure the raw/packaging material and machine change parts, if required as per the specifications provided by the FRD. Head, Materials Management shall also arrange for raw / packaging material with the manufacturer’s COA and MSDS and reference Standards.
Materials Management consecutively shall initiate the vendor approval process.
Head, FRD shall finalize composition, label claim, tentative manufacturing procedure, Finished Product specification after the availability of the required raw and packaging material and machine change parts and initiate preparation of Laboratory Pilot Scale Batches of new product. Upon successful completion of Laboratory Scale batches of new product, a Product Development Report shall be generated by Head-FRD along with Product Specification Report.
Each Product Development Report shall be numbered by FRD having nine characters as PDRXXX/YY where
PDR: Stands for Product Development Report
XXX : Denotes serial number starting from 001 to 999.
YY: Respective year
Each Product Specification Report shall be numbered by FRD having nine characters as PSRXXX/YY where
PSR : Stands for Product Specification Report
XXX: Denotes serial number starting from 001 to 999.
YY: Respective year.
At the same time Head-ARD shall start the development of the STP for in-process material & finished product and data on stability indicating method. The analytical method development data shall be submitted by Head, ARD to Head-QA for review.
Head, FRD shall arrange for the stability testing of the new product developed at laboratory pilot scale. A stability data shall be generated after accelerated study of at least three months by analyzing stability samples.
The PDR, PSR and accelerated stability study data shall be provided by R&D to QA for the review.
QA shall prepare New Product Launch Activity Chart and shall update it as and when QA gets any information regarding New Product Development from respective department.
Updated status of new product development shall be circulated by QA to concerned departments of NPDC through NPLAC as per the requirement.
After successful completion of laboratory pilot scale batches of identified/selected new product at laboratory scale, Head-FRD shall provide following required data to Head-RA for application of the manufacturing license.
- Facsimile Label
- Composition
- Brief Manufacturing process
- Raw material and Finished Product specifications/STPs
- Certificate of Analysis
- Stability data – minimum 3 month accelerated stability studies,
- Dissolution Profile, etc.
Phase IV : NPDC shall decide whether the new product shall be manufactured In-House or at Contract Manufacturing (Loan License / Third Party) Location [refer SOP titled ‘Pre-Qualification of Contract Manufacturers (Contract Acceptor)’.
RA department shall apply for DCGI permission or the manufacturing License after receiving required data from the R&D.
Simultaneously QA in conjunction with Materials Management shall start the process to approve the Vendor(s) for the Raw materials as well Packaging.
Phase V (If applicable) : The samples for the clinical trial shall be manufactured by the R&D. It shall be ensured that these batches are manufactured in the cGMP facility approved by the drug regulatory authority. The same samples shall be delivered to the Head-Clinical Research for the conduction of the clinical trial.
The stability studies as per the requirement shall be conducted for clinical trial batches.
Head, Clinical Research shall arrange for clinical trials as per the Good Clinical Practices or available SOPs and compilation of all the data.
If required, an on site audit of Clinical Trial Center shall be arranged by Head, Clinical Research in coordination with Head, QA (M) & Market Research or Head, QA or by a consultant.
Upon successful completion of the clinical trial, the data shall be compiled & submitted to DCGI by RA or Clinical Research. After approval by DCGI, RA shall apply for manufacturing License.
Head, RA shall inform respective marketing division regarding DCGI approval.
After DCGI permission, respective marketing division shall submit sample and sales estimates (strength wise, annual and first 4 months). Refer ‘Brand Plan Module TM’ . New product price proposal shall also be circulated by respective marketing division to the all members of NPDC & Logistics.
Phase VI : From laboratory scale successful trials & data generation up to manufacturing of product at production floor four months are required.
Head, R&D shall arrange for schematic presentation of manufacturing process & testing procedures of new product to concerned departments. Accordingly concerned department shall give inputs regarding improvement in manufacturing process / testing procedures to Head, R&D. If possible such suggestion can also be incorporate in final TD or Spec/STP. Head, R&D shall also arrange for issuance of tentative TD (Manufacturing / Packaging) to concerned department.
Head, QA and Head, RA shall arrange for final compilation of data on label claim, composition, brief manufacturing procedure, raw/packaging material specification, stability data, and primary packaging development.
After obtaining the Mfg. license the Head, RA shall arrange for the distribution of copies of Mfg. license to the concerned department.
Final Technical Direction (Mfg & Packaging), Spec. / STP of Raw and Packaging material, Finished Product, and In-process Material shall be generated by R&D (refer SOP title “Preparation, Approval and Control of Technical Directions” and Preparation, Approval, Control and Issue of Specification & STP for Raw , Packaging and In-process Material and Finished Products.
After approval of Technical Direction, Spec. / STP of Raw / Packaging Material, Finished Product, In-process, QA shall distribute the required document to the concerned department(s).
After receiving the Raw/Packaging material specification by QA, Materials Management shall proceed for the procurement of the raw/packaging material from the approved vendor.
Raw / Packaging material approved by QC shall be used for manufacturing of the new product.
The process for designing of artwork shall be initiated parallely.
R&D shall generate the facsimile label and forward it to Head, Clinical Research, RA, and QA for approval.
After approval, a facsimile label shall be forwarded to Materials Management or Packaging Designing (as the case may be) and accordingly artwork shall be initiated. These artwork shall be approved as per the SOP ‘Designing and Approval of Artwork’.
R&D shall send samples of the new product manufactured at lab scale to the Head, Production with specifications for the required dies & punches, any additional change part &/or any additional instrument/machine (if required).
Head, Production shall arrange for the required dies and punches, and if required machine change parts or any additional machine / equipment.
Qualification studies for any new equipment / machine to be used for particular new product shall be completed before initiation of manufacturing of that product as per the company’s Master Validation Plan.
After ensuring the availability of approved raw / packaging material, dies and punches, change parts & facility, Head, Production shall give BMR Issue Request to the Quality Assurance (refer SOP ‘Issue, receipt, storage and destruction of Batch Manufacturing Records’)
Head, QA shall ensure availability of Mfg. Lic., approved Specs / STPs of all Raw / Packaging material, In-process Material, Finished Product, Technical Direction (Mfg.& Packaging), validation protocol (if required) and then issue the BMRs to the Production ensuring the availability of approved raw and packaging materials in the stores.
The first three commercial batches shall be manufactured under supervision of R&D scientist. Any change done during the optimization shall be documented on form ‘Change(s) Done During Optimization’ (Annexure-6). This form shall be enclosed with respective BMR after specifying changes along with reasons. A process validation shall be carried out for the three consecutive batches as per the specific requirement of any country or regulatory authority.
Production Scale-up Batch Report (SUR) shall be generated by Production in co-ordination with R&D regarding summary of optimization changes done at production floor (refer Annexure-6).
Each Scale-up Batch Report shall be numbered by production having nine characters as SURXXX/YY where
SUR : Stands for Scale-up Batch Report
XXX : Denotes serial number starting from 001 to 999.
YY : Respective year
A SUR shall be reviewed by R&D, QA & any change in process shall be handled as per the SOP titled ‘Change Control’
A New Product Launch Activity Chart shall finally be closed by QA after successful manufacturing of new product at production floor.