May 8, 2025
Streamlining eCTD Preparation with AI – Part 3: Automating Compliance Checks and Validation
This is Part 3 of a 5-part series on Streamlining eCTD Preparation with AI. See parts 1, and 2 here and here.
Overview: A breakdown of how AI-powered compliance validation tools work, and how they catch submission-blocking issues before regulators do.
Key Topics:
Automated metadata and structure validation
Regulatory-specific technical checks (FDA, EMA, etc.)
Predictive compliance alerts and content analysis
First-time-right submission benefits
Real-World Metrics:
- Up to 86% reduction in submission errors
Once your documents are organized, the next step is to automate compliance and quality checks to ensure that every piece of the dossier meets regulatory requirements. Even a perfectly organized submission can fail if it doesn’t pass technical validation or comply with health authority guidelines. Traditionally, teams would perform manual QC reviews – checking that all required forms are present, verifying metadata entries, scanning for formatting issues, etc. – but manual checks are slow and prone to human error.
This is where eCTD automation truly shines: AI-driven validation tools and rules-based software can perform thorough compliance checks in a fraction of the time, catching issues that might be missed by the human eye.
Modern regulatory submission software comes with in-built eCTD validation engines that automatically review your dossier against the technical specifications of agencies like the FDA or EMA.
These tools will flag any missing files, incorrect file placements, or metadata omissions before you even attempt to submit. For example, if a required PDF is missing a Table of Contents or a study report’s metadata is not in the expected format, the system will generate an error alert.
By addressing such issues proactively, you avoid the dreaded scenario of having your submission rejected at the agency’s gateway due to a technical error.
Remember that health authorities enforce strict validation criteria (e.g., FDA’s eCTD validation codes and Technical Rejection Criteria) and a single oversight – like a mis-tagged dataset or an inconsistent study identifier – can lead to the entire dossier being bounced back.
Automated tools act as a safeguard against these problems by performing a comprehensive self-check on the submission package. Beyond technical validation, AI can assist in compliance risk detection at a deeper level. This involves analyzing the content of documents to ensure they adhere to regulatory guidelines.
For instance, an AI algorithm might scan a clinical study report to verify that all tables and appendices are properly referenced and that no disallowed abbreviations or terminologies are used (which could otherwise draw an agency query). Some advanced systems even leverage natural language processing to compare your submission documents against past successful submissions or current regulations.
They can learn from patterns – for example, noting that previous approvals for similar products always included a particular analysis – and warn you if your submission is out of line. According to industry experts, predictive analytics in pharma enables early detection of potential regulatory issues, giving teams a chance to fix problems before the submission is final.
In practice, this means an AI tool might detect that a certain required study result is missing from Module 4 or that an obsolete form is being used, and immediately alert the team to correct it. The impact of automated compliance checks on submission quality is significant.
By one estimate, implementing rigorous pre-submission validation processes and tools can reduce the risk of eCTD rejection dramatically.
Real-world data backs this up: in the case study mentioned earlier, the company’s use of automated validation resulted in zero submission rejections, whereas previously they had encountered delays due to technical errors. Similarly, a survey by pharmaphorum reported that AI-assisted review tools were able to reduce submission errors by as much as 86%, greatly improving the quality and compliance of dossiers.
These improvements mean regulatory agencies spend less time sending back questions or requiring resubmissions, and more time reviewing the substantive content of your application. Perhaps just as importantly, automated compliance checking provides real-time feedback to your team.
Instead of discovering problems weeks later during an agency review, your staff gets instant notifications of issues while assembling the submission. For example, if a file is named incorrectly or a PDF has a broken hyperlink, the system might pop up an alert immediately. This allows for quick fixes on the fly.
Teams can adopt a “compliance by design” approach – constantly validating as they build the eCTD sequence, so that by the time it’s ready to send, they are confident it will pass all checks. In sum, automating compliance checks with AI not only prevents costly mistakes (like missing metadata or structural errors) but also instills a proactive quality mindset in the submission process.
The outcome is a cleaner, first-time-right dossier that sails through technical evaluation, saving your organization time and preserving its reputation with regulators.
Request a demo to see our automated compliance engine in action.
Sources:
