Guidance on validation and qualification of processes and operations involving radiopharmaceuticals

BACKGROUND: Validation and qualification activities are nowadays an integral part of the day by day routine work in a radiopharmacy. This document is meant as an Appendix of Part B of the EANM “Guidelines on Good Radiopharmacy Practice (GRPP)” issued by the Radiopharmacy Committee of the EANM, covering the qualification and validation aspects related to the small-scale “in house” preparation of radiopharmaceuticals. The aim is to provide more detailed and practice-oriented guidance to those who are involved in the small-scale preparation of radiopharmaceuticals which are not intended for commercial purposes or distribution. RESULTS: The present guideline covers the validation and qualification activities following the well-known “validation chain”, that begins with editing the general Validation Master Plan document, includes all the required documentation (e.g. User Requirement Specification, Qualification protocols, etc.), and leads to the qualification of the equipment used in the preparation and quality control of radiopharmaceuticals, until the final step of Process Validation. CONCLUSIONS: A specific guidance to the qualification and validation activities specifically addressed to small-scale hospital/academia radiopharmacies is here provided. Additional information, including practical examples, are also available. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s41181-017-0025-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.