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###### Department of Health and Human Services

###### Food and Drug Administration

          - [Docket No. FDA-2022-D-2512]

# AGENCY:

Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

# ACTION:

Notice of availability.

# SUMMARY:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or Agency) is announcing the availability of a final guidance for industry entitled “Q5A(R2) Viral Safety Evaluation of Biotechnology Products Derived from Cell Lines of Human or Animal Origin.” The guidance was prepared under the auspices of the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH). The guidance is intended to describe risk-based principles and mitigation strategies to assure the viral safety of biotechnology products, including the data necessary to submit in a marketing application. The guidance also finalizes the updates based on advances in scientific knowledge and regulatory expectations to the first version of the ICH guidance for industry “Q5A Viral Safety Evaluation of Biotechnology Products Derived from Cell Lines of Human or Animal Origin,” issued in September 1998. Lastly, the guidance replaces the draft guidance “Q5A(R2) Viral Safety Evaluation of Biotechnology Products Derived from Cell Lines of Human or Animal Origin” issued on November 14, 2022.

# DATES:

                        The announcement of the guidance is published in the                         **Federal Register**                         on January 11, 2024.                    

# ADDRESSES:

You may submit either electronic or written comments on Agency guidances at any time as follows:

### Electronic Submissions

Submit electronic comments in the following way:
      -  Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov.                      Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Comments submitted electronically, including attachments, to                      https://www.regulations.gov                      will be posted to the docket unchanged. Because your comment will be made public, you are solely responsible for ensuring that your comment does not include any                            ( print page 1926)                          confidential information that you or a third party may not wish to be posted, such as medical information, your or anyone else's Social Security number, or confidential business information, such as a manufacturing process. Please note that if you include your name, contact information, or other information that identifies you in the body of your comments, that information will be posted on                      https://www.regulations.gov. 
      - If you want to submit a comment with confidential information that you do not wish to be made available to the public, submit the comment as a written/paper submission and in the manner detailed (see “Written/Paper Submissions” and “Instructions”).

### Written/Paper Submissions

Submit written/paper submissions as follows:
      -  Mail/Hand Delivery/Courier (for written/paper submissions):                      Dockets Management Staff (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.                
      - For written/paper comments submitted to the Dockets Management Staff, FDA will post your comment, as well as any attachments, except for information submitted, marked and identified, as confidential, if submitted as detailed in “Instructions.”

*Instructions:*                     All submissions received must include the Docket No. FDA-2022-D-2512 for “Q5A(R2) Viral Safety Evaluation of Biotechnology Products Derived from Cell Lines of Human or Animal Origin.” Received comments will be placed in the docket and, except for those submitted as “Confidential Submissions,” publicly viewable at                     *https://www.regulations.gov*                     or at the Dockets Management Staff between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, 240-402-7500.                
      - Confidential Submissions—To submit a comment with confidential information that you do not wish to be made publicly available, submit your comments only as a written/paper submission. You should submit two copies total. One copy will include the information you claim to be confidential with a heading or cover note that states “THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.” The Agency will review this copy, including the claimed confidential information, in its consideration of comments. The second copy, which will have the claimed confidential information redacted/blacked out, will be available for public viewing and posted on https://www.regulations.gov.                      Submit both copies to the Dockets Management Staff. If you do not wish your name and contact information to be made publicly available, you can provide this information on the cover sheet and not in the body of your comments and you must identify this information as “confidential.” Any information marked as “confidential” will not be disclosed except in accordance with  21 CFR 10.20  and other applicable disclosure law. For more information about FDA's posting of comments to public dockets, see  80 FR 56469 , September 18, 2015, or access the information at:                      https://www.govinfo.gov/​content/​pkg/​FR-2015-09-18/​pdf/​2015-23389.pdf. 

*Docket:*                     For access to the docket to read background documents or the electronic and written/paper comments received, go to                     *https://www.regulations.gov*                     and insert the docket number, found in brackets in the heading of this document, into the “Search” box and follow the prompts and/or go to the Dockets Management Staff, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852, 240-402-7500.                

You may submit comments on any guidance at any time (see 21 CFR 10.115(g)(5)).

                    Submit written requests for single copies of this guidance to the Division of Drug Information, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10001 New Hampshire Ave., Hillandale Building, 4th Floor, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002, or the Office of Communication, Outreach and Development, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 71, Rm. 3128, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002. Send one self-addressed adhesive label to assist that office in processing your requests. The guidance may also be obtained by mail by calling CBER at 1-800-835-4709 or 240-402-8010. See the                     **SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION**                     section for electronic access to the guidance document.                

# FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

*Regarding the guidance:*                         Kathryn King, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 51, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002, 240-402-9634,                         *kathryn.kingk@fda.hhs.gov;*                         or James Myers, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 71, Rm. 7301, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002, 240-402-7911.                    

*Regarding the ICH:*                         Jill Adleberg, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 51, Rm. 6364, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002, 301-796-5259,                         *Jill.Adleberg@fda.hhs.gov.*

# SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

## I. Background

FDA is announcing the availability of a guidance for industry entitled “Q5A(R2) Viral Safety Evaluation of Biotechnology Products Derived from Cell Lines of Human or Animal Origin.” The guidance was prepared under the auspices of ICH. ICH seeks to achieve greater regulatory harmonization worldwide to ensure that safe, effective, high-quality medicines are developed, registered, and maintained in the most resource-efficient manner.

By harmonizing the regulatory requirements in regions around the world, ICH guidelines enhance global drug development, improve manufacturing standards, and increase the availability of medications. For example, ICH guidelines have substantially reduced duplicative clinical studies, prevented unnecessary animal studies, standardized the reporting of important safety information, and standardized marketing application submissions.

                    The six Founding Members of the ICH are FDA; the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America; the European Commission; the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries Associations; the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare; and the Japanese Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association. The Standing Members of the ICH Association include Health Canada and Swissmedic. ICH membership continues to expand to include other regulatory authorities and industry associations from around the world (refer to                     *https://www.ich.org/​*).                

ICH works by engaging global regulatory and industry experts in a detailed, science-based, and consensus-driven process that results in the development of ICH guidelines. The regulators around the world are committed to consistently adopting these consensus-based guidelines, realizing the benefits for patients and for industry.

As a Founding Regulatory Member of ICH, FDA plays a major role in the development of each of the ICH guidelines, which FDA then adopts and issues as guidance for industry. FDA's guidance documents do not establish legally enforceable responsibilities. Instead, they describe the Agency's current thinking on a topic and should be viewed only as recommendations, unless specific regulatory or statutory requirements are cited.

                    In the                     **Federal Register**                     of November 14, 2022 (87 FR 68176), FDA published                           ( print page 1927)                        a notice announcing the availability of a draft guidance entitled “Q5A(R2) Viral Safety Evaluation of Biotechnology Products Derived from Cell Lines of Human or Animal Origin.” The notice gave interested persons an opportunity to submit comments by January 13, 2023. After consideration of the comments received and revisions to the guideline, a final draft of the guideline was submitted to the ICH Assembly and endorsed by the regulatory agencies in November 2023.                

                    This guidance revises and finalizes the updates included in the draft guidance issued on November 14, 2022. Like the draft guidance, the final guidance reflects updates in scientific advances and regulatory expectations since the publication of the ICH guidance for industry, “Q5A Viral Safety Evaluation of Biotechnology Products Derived from Cell Lines of Human or Animal Origin,” issued in September 1998. These revisions include descriptions of new classes of products now in scope, inclusion of new virus detection technologies, clarification of new validation strategies, and considerations specific to new manufacturing approaches, such as continuous manufacturing. The final guidance expands on the draft by including additional detail on the strategy for replacement of conventional testing methods with alternatives and additional details to better describe the scope of products addressed in the guidance. Additional definitions were added to the glossary to better align with terminology elsewhere in the guidance as well as guidances that may be read in parallel (                    *e.g.,*                     ICH guidance for industry “Q13 Continuous Manufacturing of Drug Substances and Drug Products,” available at                     *https://www.fda.gov/​media/​165775/​download*).                

This guidance is being issued consistent with FDA's good guidance practices regulation (21 CFR 10.115). The guidance represents the current thinking of FDA on “Q5A(R2) Viral Safety Evaluation of Biotechnology Products Derived from Cell Lines of Human or Animal Origin.” It does not establish any rights for any person and is not binding on FDA or the public. You can use an alternative approach if it satisfies the requirements of the applicable statutes and regulations.

## II. Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995

While this guidance contains no collection of information, it does refer to previously approved FDA collections of information. The previously approved collections of information are subject to review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3521). The collections of information in 21 CFR parts 210 and 211 pertaining to current good manufacturing practice have been approved under OMB control number 0910-0139. The collections of information in 21 CFR part 312 for the submissions of investigational new drug applications have been approved under OMB control number 0910-0014. The collections of information in 21 CFR part 601 for the submissions of biologics license applications have been approved under OMB control number 0910-0338. The collections of information 21 CFR part 58 pertaining to good laboratory practices for nonclinical laboratory studies have been approved under OMB control number 0910-0119.

## III. Electronic Access

                    Persons with access to the internet may obtain the guidance at                     *https://www.regulations.gov, https://www.fda.gov/​drugs/​guidance-compliance-regulatory-information/​guidances-drugs,**https://www.fda.gov/​vaccines-blood-biologics/​guidance-compliance-regulatory-information-biologics/​biologics-guidances,*                     or                     *https://www.fda.gov/​regulatory-information/​search-fda-guidance-documents.*

Dated: January 8, 2024.

Lauren K. Roth,

Associate Commissioner for Policy.

[FR Doc. 2024-00407 Filed 1-10-24; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4164-01-P