The International Conference of Harmonization (ICH) has worked on har- nizing the stability regulations in the US, Europe, and Japan since the early 1990s. Even though the Stability Guidelines Q1A (R2) was issued over a decade ago, issues surrounding this arena continue to surface as the principles described in the guideline are applied to different technical concentrations. As a result, the stability community has continued to discuss concerns and find ways of harmonizing regulatory requirements, streamlining practices, improving processes in order to bring safe and effective medical supplies to the patients around the world. In 2007, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Stability Focus Group organized two workshops - the Stability Workshop and the Degradation Mechanism Workshop. These meetings attracted many industry scientists as well as representatives from several regulatory agencies in the world to discuss important topics related to pharmaceutical stability practices. Recognizing the importance of documenting these discussions and with the permission of AAPS, I have worked with speakers to assemble a collection of 30 articles from presentations given at these two meetings, mainly the Stability Workshop. I trust that this book will be beneficial to all of you in providing guidance and up-to-date information for building quality stability programs. v Freedom of our mind is Mother of all inventions.

In my professional career as a pharmaceutical scientist, I have been involved with severalaspectsofthe drugdevelopmentprocessfrompre-INDto commercialization and, somehow, I usually found myself coming back to a stability-related issue. The stability area seemed to draw my utmost interest because in my day-to-day work, my opportunities involved more than one product, and none of the issues were the same.Eachsituationposedchallengesthatusuallyrequiredanexerciseofjudgment, an understandingof regulations, a knowledgeof science, a graspof compliance, and an appreciation of common practices. Sinceearly2000, Ihavealsobeeninvolvedwithseveraltrainingopportunitiesand I struggled to ?nd good, concise, practical resources, one of which I could just hand to a new scientist who wishes to gain a greater understanding of stability sciences. In addition, I encountered the same questions posted over and over on different stability best practices discussion forums. As a book lover, I also have a good collection of technical books. Unfor- nately, most of the stability related volumes are outdated. Many of these materials are theoretical and do not contain much practical information. I understand that the pharmaceutical industry during this period is quite volatile, and guidelines are changingrapidlywhileregulatoryagenciesareworkingcloselywiththepharmac- tical industryto accommodatethese changes;however, thefundamentalinformation continues to remain quite the same, just as current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) continue to be the standard industry practice. Therefore, I hoped to ass- ble a practical handbook to ?ll this v

The International Conference of Harmonization (ICH) has worked on har- nizing the stability regulations in the US, Europe, and Japan since the early 1990s. Even though the Stability Guidelines Q1A (R2) was issued over a decade ago, issues surrounding this arena continue to surface as the principles described in the guideline are applied to different technical concentrations. As a result, the stability community has continued to discuss concerns and find ways of harmonizing regulatory requirements, streamlining practices, improving processes in order to bring safe and effective medical supplies to the patients around the world. In 2007, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Stability Focus Group organized two workshops - the Stability Workshop and the Degradation Mechanism Workshop. These meetings attracted many industry scientists as well as representatives from several regulatory agencies in the world to discuss important topics related to pharmaceutical stability practices. Recognizing the importance of documenting these discussions and with the permission of AAPS, I have worked with speakers to assemble a collection of 30 articles from presentations given at these two meetings, mainly the Stability Workshop. I trust that this book will be beneficial to all of you in providing guidance and up-to-date information for building quality stability programs. v Freedom of our mind is Mother of all inventions.

In my professional career as a pharmaceutical scientist, I have been involved with severalaspectsofthe drugdevelopmentprocessfrompre-INDto commercialization and, somehow, I usually found myself coming back to a stability-related issue. The stability area seemed to draw my utmost interest because in my day-to-day work, my opportunities involved more than one product, and none of the issues were the same.Eachsituationposedchallengesthatusuallyrequiredanexerciseofjudgment, an understandingof regulations, a knowledgeof science, a graspof compliance, and an appreciation of common practices. Sinceearly2000, Ihavealsobeeninvolvedwithseveraltrainingopportunitiesand I struggled to ?nd good, concise, practical resources, one of which I could just hand to a new scientist who wishes to gain a greater understanding of stability sciences. In addition, I encountered the same questions posted over and over on different stability best practices discussion forums. As a book lover, I also have a good collection of technical books. Unfor- nately, most of the stability related volumes are outdated. Many of these materials are theoretical and do not contain much practical information. I understand that the pharmaceutical industry during this period is quite volatile, and guidelines are changingrapidlywhileregulatoryagenciesareworkingcloselywiththepharmac- tical industryto accommodatethese changes;however, thefundamentalinformation continues to remain quite the same, just as current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) continue to be the standard industry practice. Therefore, I hoped to ass- ble a practical handbook to ?ll this v