A Nontrivial Analysis of Patient Safety Risk from Parenteral Drug- and Medical Device-Borne Endotoxin

BACKGROUND: A thorough and systematic analysis of potential endotoxin-related safety issues from parenteral drugs and devices is important to ensure appropriate current Good Manufacturing Practices, compendial requirements, standards and regulatory guidance. Lately, the US Food and Drug Administration has been expecting pharmaceutical firms to apply an arbitrary safety factor to compendial compliant drug specifications for endotoxin, potentially causing manufacturing challenges, supply issues and additional unwarranted costs. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate data from three disparate sources over an extended period of time, from 2008 to 2021, to determine if there exists an industry-wide risk to patients from parenteral drugs and devices, thereby evaluating if changes to current Good Manufacturing Practices or compendial requirements are indeed warranted. Food and Drug Administration data from current Good Manufacturing Practices non-compliance observations, product recalls and the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System were used as the three sources of data. METHODS: Parenteral products were separated into drugs and devices, potential endotoxin-related patient safety issues were characterised in terms of the available non-compliance information, the type and number of product recalls, and the type and number of potential adverse events. Descriptive statistics in Microsoft Excel 2019 and Pivot tables were used for the analysis and presentation of the data. RESULTS: From 2011 to 2021, a total of 188 endotoxin-related current Good Manufacturing Practices compliance observations were recorded, 70% and 30% were associated with laboratory and manufacturing origins, respectively. Finished drug product testing accounted for 56% of these. In contrast, 95% of all endotoxin-related product recalls were associated solely with medical devices. Over the years 2008–2021, approximately 1.4% of all adverse events (23,663,780) were recorded with some reference to pyrexia (fever); however, there are sparse data categorically attributing this to the administration of parenteral drugs or devices or combinations of these possessing high levels of endotoxin. CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of data concerning drug- and device-borne endotoxin obtained from FDA data from current Good Manufacturing Practices non-compliance observations, product recalls and the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System demonstrated the absence of industry-wide issues with endotoxin contamination. Based upon these data, changes to current Good Manufacturing Practices and the compendial methodology of setting endotoxin specifications (and hence the compendial methodology of testing for endotoxins) are unwarranted.