3.3. Testing criteria
Only scientifically meaningful, non-redundant tests that measure characteristics associated to safety and efficacy, as well as additional tests that address consistency of the production process, should be included in the generation of the product profile. The tests must be properly validated and performed in the context of a QA system. This product profile should be discussed as early as possible with the regulatory bodies. It should be noted that although release specifications should be included in the product profile, tighter limits for the same parameters might be used to establish and monitor consistency, as it is described for example in the European Pharmacopoeia (Ph.Eur.) monograph for human vaccines [10]; while release specifications are mainly based on the behavior of the clinical consistency lots in the tests, consistency limits are based on trending data.
For more complex vaccines, containing conventional components and/or certain types of adjuvant, it may be necessary to perform limited immunogenicity studies in a small number of animals as part of the final product testing. Also, if manufacturing changes occur, the need for in vivo testing, at least for a limited period through which consistency is being re-demonstrated, should be re-assessed.