Skip to main content.

What is GMP?

Current Good Manufacturing Practices are regulations set by the U.S. FDA to ensure drug products for human use meet the minimum quality requirements for patient safety. The Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center is a GMP facility.

What is GMP? Why is it important?

Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs) are regulations called Code of Federal Regulations (CFRs) set by the United States Federal Drug Administration (US FDA). cGMPs are important to ensure that drug products made for human use meet the minimum quality requirements for the safety of patients.

  • The United States Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (abbreviated as FFDCA, FDCA, or FD&C), is a set of laws passed by Congress in 1938.
  • Gave authority to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to oversee the safety of food, drugs, and cosmetics.
  • Specifically, cGMP provides minimum requirements for methods to be used in, and the facilities or controls to be used for, the manufacture, processing, packing, or holding of a drug meets the requirements of the act as to safety, and has the identity and strength and meets the quality and purity characteristics that it purports or is represented to possess.
  • Click here to view the FDA Code of Federal Regulations

What does it take to be considered a GMP Facility?

In order to be considered a facility run in compliance with the GMP requirements, the facility must establish processes and procedures under the requirements in 21 CFR Part 210 and 211 (at a minimum) and other CFR parts are necessary dependent on the specific type(s) of business(es). In addition, the FDA may perform an inspection at a frequency of a "reasonable time" to ensure the GMP requirements are in place and are maintained in a satisfactory fashion.

Specific regulations that apply to facilities used for human clinical trials

The specific CFRs applicable to the GMP Facility with regard to Clinical Trials use with Human Cellular Products are:

  • 21 CFR Part 210 - Current Good Manufacturing Practice in Manufacturing, Processing, Packing, or Holding of Drugs; General
  • 21 CFR Part 211 - Current Good Manufacturing Practice for Finished Pharmaceuticals
  • 21 CFR Part 1271 - Human Cells, Tissues, and Cellular and Tissue-Based Products

cGMP or Current Good Manufacturing Practices refers to the FDA Code of Federal Regulations which provides minimum requirements for methods to be used in, and the facilities or controls to be used for, the manufacture, processing, packing, or holding of a drug meets the requirements of the act as to safety, and has the identity and strength and meets the quality and purity characteristics that it purports or is represented to possess.

  • This purpose of this Part of the CFR lists the cGMP processes and systems necessary.
  • Part 211 provides the basic minimum requirements by subpart as follows:

Subpart

Requirement

Sub-Requirements

A

General Provisions

Purpose, scope, definitions

B

Organization and Personnel

Responsibilities; functions of quality; training qualifications

C

Buildings and Facilities

Washroom facilities; sanitation; maintenance; design and construction; lighting; venting and air filtration; plumbing; sewage and refuse

D

Equipment

Equipment design size and location; construction; cleaning and maintenance

E-I

Controls

E

Components and Drug Product Containers and Closures

Receipt, storage testing and approval/rejection of materials; use of approved materials; retesting of approved materials; containers and closures

F

Production and Process

Written procedures; deviations; charge-in of components; yield calculation; equipment identification; sampling and testing of in-process materials and drug products; time limits on production; microbial contamination control; reprocessing

G

Packaging and Labeling

Material examination and usage criteria; labeling issuance; packaging and labeling operations; drug product inspection; expiration dating

H

Holding and Distribution

Warehousing procedures; distribution procedures

I

Laboratory

General requirements; testing and release for distribution; stability testing; special testing requirements; reserve samples; lab animals; penicillin contamination

J

Records and Reports

General requirements; equipment clean and use log; labeling records; master production and control records; batch production and control records; production record review; lab records; complaint files

K

Returned and Salvaged Drug Products

Returned drug products; drug product salvaging

The purpose of this Part is to create a unified registration and listing system for establishments that manufacture human cells, tissues, and cellular and tissue-based products (HCT/P's) and to establish donor-eligibility, current good tissue practice, and other procedures to prevent the introduction, transmission, and spread of communicable diseases by HCT/P's).

In association with 21 CFR 211, for Cellular Products, Subpart D - Current Good Tissue Practice requires the following subparts in greater detail specific to Cellular Products:

Personnel; Procedures; Facilities; Environmental Control and Monitoring; Equipment; Supplies and Reagents; Recovery; Process Changes; Process Validation; Labeling Controls; Storage; Receipt, predistribution shipment, and distribution of an HCT/P; Records; Tracking; Complaint File.

Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center

University of Kansas Medical Center
Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center
Mail Stop: 1075
3901 Rainbow Boulevard
Kansas City, KS 66160
913-945-6290