About Applied Statistics for FDA Process Validation

In Guidance for Industry Process Validation: General Principle and Practices, process validation is defined as, “…the collection and evaluation of data, from the process design stage through commercial production..” The guidance further delineates the ‘process design stage through commercial production’ into three distinct stages of the product lifecycle:

Stage 1: Process Design: The commercial manufacturing process is defined during this stage based on knowledge gained through development and scale-up activities.

Stage 2: Process Qualification: During this stage, the process design is evaluated to determine if the process is capable of reproducible commercial manufacturing.

Stage 3: Continued Process Verification: Ongoing assurance is gained during routine production that the process remains in a state of control. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided guidance for industry in 2011 that has established a framework for process validation in the pharmaceutical industry. This guidance, titled “Process Validation: General Principles and Practices” consists of a three-stage process. The three stages are 1) Process Design, 2) Process Qualification, and 3) Continued Process Verification.