The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (“DRA”) provided that any entity that receives or makes annual payments under a Medicaid State plan of at least $5,000,000 must, as a condition of receiving such payments, establish written policies for employees, contractors, and agents that provide detailed …
On March 22, 2007, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved S. 965, a bill making emergency appropriations primarily for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. During the Committee’s consideration of the bill, it adopted an amendment offered by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) regarding the Medicaid Program. …
As the backlog of pre-Medicare Modernization Act (“MMA”) ANDAs is cleared and disputes over 180-day exclusivity under the old statutory regime become a vestige of the past, new post-MMA disputes over 180-day exclusivity will certainly take their place, particularly as they concern forfeiture. Indeed, within …
Although we launched this blog only two weeks ago, word is spreading fast that FDA Law Blog is a valuable source of information on timely and often overlooked issues affecting FDA-regulated industries. Today, FDA Week, an industry publication from Inside Washington Publishers, ran an article …
The Washington Legal Foundation (WLF), a public-interest law and policy center, has challenged FDA’s authority to regulate laboratory developed tests (LDTs), as well as FDA’s proposed method of changing its regulations governing analyte specific reagents (ASRs), which are components of LDTs. LDTs are commonly referred …
Earlier today, FDA announced the availability of a draft guidance document “that would implement a more stringent approach for considering potential conflicts of interest for its advisory committee members and for recommending eligibility for meeting participation.” The new guidance document, once finalized, will replace a …
On March 12, 2007, Greenberg Traurig submitted a citizen petition to FDA to switch four prescription antihistamine and antihistamine-decongestant drugs from prescription to OTC status. The four drugs are ALLEGRA (fexofenidine HCl), ALLEGRA D (fexofenidine HCl; pseudoephedrine HCl), ZYRTEC (cetirizine HCl), and ZYRTEC D (cetirizine …
Reacting to a February 2007 FDA safety alert on the off-label use of erythropoietic stimulating agents (ESAs), Noridian Administrative Services (Noridian), a Medicare Administrative Contractor for 13 states in the west and midwest, announced that, effective March 5, 2007, Medicare will deny payment for the …
In a case that may have wider implications for the data on which FDA bases its decisions, a medical marijuana rights group, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), has sued HHS and FDA for violating the requirements under the Data Quality Act, 44 U.S.C. § 3516 …
On March 1, 2007, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals heard an oral argument in Abigail Alliance v. von Eschenbach. Previously, a divided court of appeals had ruled that where there are no other FDA-approved treatment options, a terminally ill patient’s access to …
FDA’s highly anticipated PDUFA IV proposal, if enacted by Congress, would eliminate any possibility that a 505(b)(2) application might not be an application subject to PDUFA user fees. Among various technical changes included in the Agency’s PDUFA IV proposal, FDA recommends that Congress “[s]implify the …
In July 2004, the Coalition for Mercury-Free Drugs (the Coalition) filed a citizen petition with FDA requesting that the agency prohibit the use of thimerosal and other mercury compounds in vaccines and drugs. In August 2006, the Coalition went to court claiming that FDA had …
In Late February 2007, FDA announced in the Federal Register the withdrawal of approval of 128 suitability petitions in accordance with the Pediatric Research Equity Act of 2003 (“PREA”). FDA’s notice states: [T]hese approval decisions are being withdrawn because ANDAs were never submitted and PREA requires …
On February 27, FDA announced a draft guidance, titled Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration (CAM Guidance). The CAM Guidance was prepared by the Office of Policy and Planning within FDA’s Office of …
On March 1, 2007, FDA announced that it issued 20 Warning Letters to companies marketing and distributing unapproved drug products containing ergotamine tartrate, a drug used to treat vascular headaches, including migraines. According to FDA’s press release announcing the enforcement action: In addition to marketing …
