Barbara Unger
Barbara Unger formed Unger Consulting, Inc. in December 2014 to provide GMP auditing and regulatory intelligence services to the pharmaceutical industry. She has extensive expertise in this area having developed, implemented, and maintained the GMP regulatory intelligence program for eight years at Amgen Inc. This included surveillance, analysis, and communication of GMP related legislation, regulations, guidance, and industry compliance enforcement trends. Barbara was the first chairperson of the Rx-360 Monitoring and Reporting work group (2009 to 2014) that summarized and published relevant GMP and supply chain related laws, regulations, and guidance. She also served as the chairperson of the Midwest Discussion Group GMP-Intelligence sub-group from 2010 to 2014.
Before Amgen, Barbara worked for the consulting firm Don Hill and Associates, providing regulatory and quality services to the pharmaceutical industry, and for Eli Lilly and Company in quality and CMC regulatory affairs positions. She began her career in the pharmaceutical / device industry with Hybritech Inc. and received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois in Urbana Illinois.
ARTICLES BY BARBARA UNGER
-
FDA Releases Guidance On Normal GMP Operations During COVID-199/18/2020
Most FDA guidance on COVID has been associated with tools to combat the pandemic. This new guidance should be read by all drug and biologic manufacturers, whether or not they produce COVID-related products.
-
FDA FY2019 Warning Letters: A Closer Look At Drug Manufacturers2/28/2020
Part two of this series takes a deep dive into the types of drug manufacturers that received warning letters and their locations, including data on how frequently the FDA recommends that firms hire qualified consultants and its request for “independent assessments” in warning letters.
-
U.S. Sites Play Surprise Role In FDA’s Drug GMP Warning Letter Report2/21/2020
Fiscal year 2019 was a fascinating year for drug GMP warning letters in the diversity of topics addressed, depth of focus, and trends in enforcement actions. This article presents a comprehensive summary of the drug GMP warning letters issued in FY2019, including an evaluation of trends since FY2013.
-
The 10 Most-Cited MHRA GMP Inspection Deficiencies By Annex/Chapter1/31/2020
This is the second article in a two-part series reviewing the MHRA’s publication of the GMP deficiencies for drug product published in October 2019. Part 1 identified and evaluated the critical and major deficiencies. Part 2 presents the 10 most frequently cited paragraphs for the 10 chapters and annexes with the most frequently cited deficiencies.
-
An Analysis Of MHRA’s Annual GMP Inspection Deficiencies Report1/27/2020
To publish the GMP deficiencies for drug product issued during its 2018 inspections, MHRA released a 6,200+ line Excel spreadsheet in October 2019. Here, Barb Unger distilled that data into easily-digestible prose, to save you the spreadsheet struggle.
-
What Can We Learn From 2016 FDA & MHRA Drug GMP Inspection Observations?5/2/2017
This article presents the most recent GMP inspection data from CDER and MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency). The CDER data and the MHRA data come from GMP inspections conducted in 2016.
-
Is GMP Quality System Auditing Fundamentally Flawed? A Data Integrity Alternative2/27/2017
Pharmaceutical inspection approaches rely on the evaluation of several or all components of the quality system: quality, production, laboratory, materials, facilities and equipment, and packaging and labeling. One area where it has serious limitations, however, is in the assessment of data management and data integrity.
-
An Analysis Of FDA FY2016 Drug GMP Warning Letters1/16/2017
This article presents a detailed summary of the drug GMP warning letters issued by FDA in FY2016, as well as a comparison of trends in this area since FY2013. Monitoring publicly available enforcement actions and trends as part of a comprehensive GMP intelligence program is crucial, because FDA expects firms to monitor these actions and correct similar deficiencies at their site(s).
-
Comparing Recent Data Management/Integrity Guidances From MHRA, WHO, & PIC/S12/13/2016
Over the past two years, several major regulatory authorities have published new guidance documents addressing data management and data integrity in the pharmaceutical industry.
-
Comparing Recent Data Management/Integrity Guidances: FDA, EMA, & China FDA11/16/2016
In 2015 and 2016, six major international regulatory authorities published guidance documents addressing data management and data integrity. Two of the guidances — the draft guidance published by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2016 and the guidance posted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in August 2016, take a question and answer approach.