Quality by Design (QbD) is a concept first outlined by well-known quality expert Joseph M. Juran in various publications, most notably Juran on Quality by Design.[1]. Juran believed that quality could be planned, and that most quality crises and problems relate to the way in which quality was planned in the first place.
While Quality by Design principles have been used to advance product and process quality in every industry, and particularly the automotive industry, they have most recently been adopted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a vehicle for the transformation of how drugs are discovered, developed, and commercially manufactured.[2][3][4]
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This FDA imperative is best outlined in its report “Pharmaceutical Quality for the 21st Century: A Risk-Based Approach.”[5] In the past few years, the Agency has made significant progress in implementing the concepts of "Quality by Design" (QbD) into its pre-market processes. The focus of this concept is that quality should be built into a product with a thorough understanding of the product and process by which it is developed and manufactured along with a knowledge of the risks involved in manufacturing the product and how best to mitigate those risks. This is a successor to the "quality by QC" (or "quality after design") approach that the companies have taken up until 1990s.[6]
Specifically, the following activities are guiding the overall implementation of QbD:
While QbD will provide better design predictions, there is also a strong recognition that industrial scale-up and comercial manufacturing experience provides new and very important knowledge about the process and the raw materials used therein. FDA is aware that knowledge is not static and builds throughout the manufacturing lifecycle. FDA's release of the Process Validation[6] guidance in January 2011 notes the need for companies to continue benefiting from knowledge gained, and continually improve throughout the process lifecycle by making adaptations to assure root causes of manufacturing problems are quickly corrected. This vigilant and nimble approach is explained by FDA to be essential to best protect the consumer (patient).
Working with regulators in the European Union (the European Medicines Agency) and Japan, FDA has been instrumental in furthering Quality by Design objectives through the International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use. ICH guidelines Q8 (on Pharmaceutical Development), Q9 (on Quality Risk Management), and Q10 (on Pharmaceutical Quality System) provide some assistance for manufacturers to implement Quality by Design into their own operations.[8] The ICH Steering Committee meets twice a year to discuss the progress of its efforts. Further details are being developed by industry organizations to assure that Quality Systems objectives are met by application of experience and innovations as process understanding builds throughout the process lifecycle. This practical input should help ensure that quality risk management and knowledge management are used to make necessary lifecycle adaptations that maintain process control and product quality, including evolved controls as well as rapid corrective and preventative action (CAPA) to assure sustainable CGMP compliance.
8. Joseph M. Juran, a perspective on past contributions and future impact, Quality and Reliability Engineering International, Vol. 23, pp. 653-663, 2007 by Godfrey, A.B. and Kenett, R.S.
9. Quality by Design Applications in Biosimilar Technological Products, ACQUAL, Accreditation and Quality Assurance, Springer Verlag, Vol. 13, No 12, pp. 681-690, 2008 by Kenett R.S. and Kenett D.A.