A certificate that reports one test result on one vial extrapolates to claim that all two hundred vials in the lot are identical, which is an assumption worth questioning.
Under AQL sampling plans, testing two vials from a fifty-vial lot gives you an operating characteristic curve that tells you what risks you are accepting.
If the entire lot failed qualification, a retest on a different vial is sometimes done, but reporting a retest result under the same lot number is misleading.
Sampling plans for pharmaceutical manufacturing are defined in ISO 2859 and ANSI Z1.4, and they are based on statistical sampling theory.
The limitation is that you cannot know for certain without testing every vial, and you almost never can afford to do that.
Assume segregation is possible, and design your sampling to catch it if it exists.
edited 5 Apr 2025 by noor_alhassan — added the citation requested in comments
I tested this on two lots and got the same answer, so at least it reproduces. – tyndall_haze 3 months ago The timing signature is the useful part. Everything else is confounded. – h_pergande 43 days ago add a comment