Drug Development Issue Log
This is a practical guide to building a issue log for a drug development project — a register of problems that have occurred and need resolving, adapted to the realities of developing a pharmaceutical product through regulatory stages.
What a Issue Log is
A issue log is a register of problems that have occurred and need resolving. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Issue Log. On a drug development project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for a Drug Development project
Drug Development projects live or die on developing a pharmaceutical product through regulatory stages. A well-built issue log gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how drug development projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- Issue description
- Priority and severity
- Owner
- Resolution and status
Drug Development-specific considerations
Tailor the issue log to the risks that most often derail drug development projects:
- Regulatory approval delays
- Trial/validation failures
- Strict GxP compliance
Example
On a real drug development project, the issue log would be shaped by developing a pharmaceutical product through regulatory stages. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — regulatory approval delays, trial/validation failures, strict GxP compliance — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.