Deviation handling and quality risk management During the normal process of vaccine manufacture, deviations from documented, approved processes may occur. These may be planned or unplanned. Although manufacturers do their best to avoid these deviations they are naturally unavoidable. These deviations may impact on the quality of the product. It is important for a manufacturer to have a documented and systematic approach to deviation handling and assessing risk to the quality of the product. In response to requests to WHO from manufacturers, this document on "Deviation handling and quality risk assessment" has been developed. There have already been several rounds of invited consultations with GMP experts, vaccine manufacturers, National Regulatory Authorities and WHO staff and public comment was invited on the July 2013 version. A new version is under development. The current document is a guidance to manufacturers of prequalified vaccines and as a complement to the Procedure for assessing the acceptability, in principle, of vaccines for purchase by United Nations agencies, WHO TRS 978, Annex 6 .
(effective date: February 2012) . It provides guidance on approaches to handling planned or unplanned deviations and assessing and managing quality risks. It is recognized that it is not an all-inclusive document. If there are matters that not clear to manufacturers from the document, further discussion with WHO may be requested by emailing vaccprequalification@who.int |