New Service For Quality And Safety

SGS has launched a new service for the pharmaceutical industry aimed at ensuring product quality and safety at every step of the supply chain.

The company’s pharmaceutical good manufacturing practices (GMP) audit solutions address many of the issues facing the industry.

Says Eize de Boer, Global Manager Life Science Auditing, SGS: “The vast majority of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and intermediates that drug companies in North America and Europe use to manufacture their drugs come from suppliers in Asia and Latin America."

"Ensuring consistent quality standards across one’s entire supplier base is no easy task, and it will become more and more complex as price pressure forces manufacturers to outsource more production to suppliers around the world.”

Keeping on top of the volume of inspections and differing regulatory obligations around the world can easily overwhelm any company’s internal quality control department.

Pharmaceutical GMP audits from SGS allow both customers and suppliers to ensure the quality, integrity and safety of ingredients, packaging and the entire supply chain through a combination of compliance monitoring, pre-inspection assessments, gap-auditing, and specialised training and consultancy services.

“Many companies in the pharmaceutical industry are not outsourcing their GMP audits because they are unaware of alternatives to doing it themselves. This does not have to be the case, there is an alternative,” said Ferdinand Dabu, Marketing Director Life Science Services, SGS.

“In addition, with our global network of laboratories and experienced staff, we can respond to a wide range of customer needs – from large manufacturers based in North America and Europe who need to ensure the quality of their inputs, to smaller suppliers in Asia and Latin America who must prove that their production processes and quality meet global standards.”