Password: quality

Pharmaceutical production is a delicate affair and for this reason requires validated processes and rigorous, detailed procedures such as to guarantee that the finished medicinal product always meets the requirements of authorised quality standards. 

The maxim ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ is especially relevant in pharmaceuticals manufacturing: here, the Quality Assurance department establishes rules, application of which can guarantee that the quality of the product manufactured exactly corresponds to the quality specifications authorised by the competent health authorities. The following are a few of the many tasks entrusted to Quality Assurance:

  • to qualify our suppliers
  • to draft the most suitable procedures for each production activity
  • to scrutinise our procedures and assess every possible criticality by applying risk analysis techniques
  • to standardise (validate) the production processes to guarantee repeatability 
  • to define the tests/inspections to be carried out during the various process phases found to be most critical 
  • before any product lot is placed on the market, to verify that all the manufacturing and Quality Control operations have been correctly completed, in order to guarantee the compliance of our products to the specifications approved  
  • after the product is on the market, to gather, evaluate and process any and all information which may contribute to further improving the ways in which we manufacture our medicinal products.

Quality, in production of a medicinal product, begins with the raw materials . Our suppliers are carefully selected and qualified before they become our suppliers: the first step is quality control of various samples of each raw material we need to procure; when a material meets our requirements, a team from the Quality Assurance department inspects the plant at which it is produced in order to verify the plant’s adherence to international quality standards. Only after a plant has been inspected and approved by Quality Assurance can we begin to purchase the raw materials it manufactures. 
But quality raw materials are not enough to guarantee the quality of a medicinal product. We also need:

  • to carefully fine-tune and monitor the manufacturing processes 
  • to perform quality checks on all components used, and quality control inspections of the manufactured medicinal products, prior to release to the market.

Florence - Manufacturing site
Sterile Ampoules Production Department

Quality Control Activities 

Although the preventive actions we take are many and extensive, we don’t stop there. In order to best safeguard patients’ wellbeing, raw material and packaging material we use is tested and inspected by the Quality Control laboratories to verify its suitability for use. 

Only after they have been approved by Quality Control can these materials be used for manufacturing our medicinal products – on which we run further tests to verify that the finished products are conformant with the authorised quality specifications. 

Before any medicinal product can be sold, Quality Assurance runs a last check on the production documentation to be doubly sure that all the operations have been carried out correctly, that all the laboratory tests have given results conformant with expected values.

How does Menarini create a drug?

On average, it takes about 10 years of research and clinical development with the collection of data and information before reaching Phase 4, or the moment in which we are certain of the drug’s effectiveness and submit it for approval to the health authorities in order to obtain the marketing authorisation. After this, the drug enters Menarini's production cycle.

Production is a crucial and delicate step and that is why it requires validated manufacturing processes and stringent, meticulous procedures aimed at ensuring the drug’s constant quality. This applies to the entire Menarini world, at all the Group's sites, wherever they may be.

Interesting facts

Did you know that...

Menarini was founded more than 150 years ago, in Naples, as a pharmacy – and that the shop still exists and is still known by the same name?

Did you know that...

Friedrich von Heyden (who gave his name to our plant in Dresden) founded Chemische Fabrik Von Heyden, the first company to conduct industrial synthesis and marketing of acetylsalicylic acid?

Did you know that...

Berlin Chemie, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, was one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Eastern Europe?

Quality Makes All the Difference

A medicinal product must be:

  effective, that is, it must produce the expected therapeutic effect

  safe; that is, it must not pose a risk to patients’ health; such risks may arise if the raw materials used in manufacture do not meet the prescribed quality requirements or if the manufacturing processes have not been correctly carried out;

  controlled; that is, it must be backed up by a quality system (a manner of working which is correct and standardised and extends to all those who participate in manufacture of a medicinal product) capable of guaranteeing constant correspondence with the specifications approved by the health authorities.

Only thanks to the ongoing commitment and work of all the departments involved in the manufacturing and control activitiesis it possible to guarantee that every Menarini medicinal product placed on the market will meet all the prescribed requirements and not pose a risk to the patients who will use it.

Taking Responsible Care of Our Products and Patients

All the Menarini processes are based on solid, important values: the sense of responsibility of the people who work at our Group, the impetus toward innovation that pervades everything we do.

There are no secrets in the life of a Menarini medicinal product: it is all mapped in our system.

Our production in number

Fourteen production plants around the globe: in Florence (2 sites), Pisa, L’Aquila, Lomagna, Berlin (2 centres), Dresden, Kaluga, Istanbul, Shannon, Jakarta and Guatemala which in in 2018 produced 585 million packs.

Interesting facts

Did you know that...

Menarini was founded more than 150 years ago, in Naples, as a pharmacy – and that the shop still exists and is still known by the same name?

Did you know that...

Friedrich von Heyden (who gave his name to our plant in Dresden) founded Chemische Fabrik Von Heyden, the first company to conduct industrial synthesis and marketing of acetylsalicylic acid?

Did you know that...

Berlin Chemie, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, was one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Eastern Europe?

OUR VALUES

10 core values which originated our group's success. READ MORE »

DIVISION DIAGNOSTICS

Advanced technology. READ MORE »

QUALITY FIRST

Quality: starting point and endpoint criteria for our medicines. READ MORE »

MENARINI IN THE WORLD

The Menarini Group has companies located almost all over the world. READ MORE »
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