Season one read draft EU GMP Annex 22 as the one text that drew a hard line on model type: static and deterministic machine learning only in critical GMP applications, with adaptive models, probabilistic models and generative AI told they should not be used there. On 2 October 2026 EMA published the report of its 30 June expert workshop, and its introduction says the drafting group has discussed opening that scope, provided the models comply with the annex and sit under a fully documented, risk-based control strategy. Sam and Sarah read the fifteen pages closely: industry's case against technology labels, the ICH Q9 vocabulary of uncertainty, importance, complexity and detectability, where the limits of mitigation lie, the report's distinction between human oversight and human-in-the-loop, layered controls that prevent, detect and contain, the lifecycle and supplier questions, and what the drafting group says it may now write. Then the four recurring systems go through the proposed test instead of the old gate, the agent longest of all, and the episode closes on what a site should build now because it is the same evidence package either way.
Researched, scripted and voiced by AI systems under Jack Prior's direction. Sam and Sarah are AI characters; nothing in the episode is Jack speaking, and none of it is a statement of his views or his employer's. Generative AI can be confidently wrong — check the sources. Corrections:
[email protected].
Transcript: https://jackprior.ai/podcast/transcript/10-annex-22-revisited.html
Documents discussed:
Report — Multistakeholder workshop on expert contributions to AI guidance development (Annex 22): https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/report/report-multistakeholder-workshop-expert-contributions-artificial-intelligence-guidance-development-annex-22_en.pdf
Annex 22 — Artificial Intelligence: https://picscheme.org/docview/9715
HMA-EMA AI group — meeting with industry stakeholders, summary notes: https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/minutes/summary-notes-meeting-hma-ema-group-focused-ai-industry-stakeholders-february-2026_en.pdf
Q9(R1): https://database.ich.org/sites/default/files/ICH_Q9%28R1%29_Guideline_Step4_2023_0126_0.pdf
Considerations for the Use of AI to Support Regulatory Decision-Making for Drug and Biological Products: https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/considerations-use-artificial-intelligence-support-regulatory-decision-making-drug-and-biological
Annex 11 — Computerised Systems (revision): https://health.ec.europa.eu/consultations/stakeholders-consultation-eudralex-volume-4-good-manufacturing-practice-guidelines-chapter-4-annex_en
GMP: Multistakeholder workshop on expert contributions to AI guidance development (Annex 22): https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/events/good-manufacturing-practice-multistakeholder-workshop-expert-contributions-artificial-intelligence-guidance-development-annex-22
AI CMC Regulatory Landscape: https://jackprior.ai/ai-cmc-landscape/
Fact check: 157 factual claims in this episode were checked against the source documents by an independent AI pass: 139 are supported by the primary text, 0 rest on secondary sources or are hedged as such (listed in the report), 18 open. Full report: https://jackprior.ai/podcast/factcheck/10-annex-22-revisited.html
Open items: Under draft Annex 22, dynamic/probabilistic/generative models should not be used in critical GMP applications, and in non-critical applications a human in the loop is expected (the model drafts and a person decides), so the model-type restriction does not bar such non-critical use. [PARTIAL]; The third page of the report says the drafting group has discussed allowing generative AI in GMP applications, critical or not, provided it is supported by a documented control strategy. [PARTIAL]; Draft Annex 22 is the only text in the corpus that sorts AI by model type. [NOT-CHECKABLE]; The Annex 22 draft dates from July 2025. [UNSUPPORTED]; This report is the first official text in the corpus that moves the answer on adaptive models or generative AI in critical GMP. [NOT-CHECKABLE]; For each topic the report gives the drafting group's questions, the industry perspective, a Q&A, key messages, and a paragraph headed potential impact on Annex 22 drafting. [PARTIAL]; Industry at the workshop leaned on the Q9 sentence that formality should be commensurate with uncertainty, importance and complexity. [PARTIAL]; The reply at the workshop went back to ICH Q9's text: risk analysis is about likelihood and severity, and in some risk management tools the ability to detect the harm (detectability) also factors in the estimation of risk. [PARTIAL]; The report comes from EMA's GMP inspectors (an EMA inspectors' report). [PARTIAL]; 'Outsourced Activities' is the title of Chapter 7 of Part I of the EU GMP guide. [NOT-IN-CORPUS]; The draft's lines 12-25 still read as they did in July 2025 (no amended draft exists). [NOT-CHECKABLE]; No revised Annex 22 text has been published. [NOT-CHECKABLE]; The report's assessment dimensions are consequence, influence, uncertainty, complexity and detectability, while the July draft sorted by technology. [PARTIAL]; ICH M15 uses the vocabulary of consequence and influence (model influence, decision consequence) in its risk framework. [PARTIAL]; Under the draft, a soft sensor that retrains itself nightly (a model that adapts performance) should not be used in critical GMP applications. [PARTIAL]; The report refers to change triggers and re-optimisation or retraining criteria as lifecycle controls for adaptive models. [PARTIAL]; The report says supplier agreements should give the regulated user visibility of changes when a third-party or foundation model is updated. [PARTIAL]; No revised draft of Annex 22 exists. [NOT-CHECKABLE]