By Michelle L. Butler & Kurt R. Karst – On November 3, 2014, just short of the 60-day deadline, FDA filed a notice appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit the Final Judgment and Order entered on September 5, 2014 …
By Kurt R. Karst – We were wondering how long it might be until a company went running to FDA to request that the Agency reset the date of approval of its NDA, as well as any unexpired marketing exclusivity, as the result of a proprietary …
By Jay W. Cormier & Alan M. Kirschenbaum – As we previously reported, in late August, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied PhRMA’s request that the Court vacate a recent HRSA interpretive rule on the orphan drug exception under the 340B drug …
By Michelle L. Butler & Kurt R. Karst – As we recently reported, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted Depomed Inc.’s ("Depomed’s") Motion for Summary Judgment and ordered FDA to recognize orphan drug exclusivity for Gralise (gabapentin) Tablets “without requiring any proof …
By Kurt R. Karst – Nearly two years after Depomed, Inc. (“Depomed”) filed a Complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging FDA’s denial of orphan drug exclusivity for GRALISE (gabapentin) Tablets, the court (Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson) has finally ruled in …
By Alan M. Kirschenbaum – We have reported previously (here and here) on PhRMA’s lawsuit challenging a HRSA regulation implementing the orphan drug exclusion that applies to certain types of covered entities under the 340B Drug Discount Program. To recap briefly, the rule had provided that …
By Kurt R. Karst – The Major Contribution to Patient Care (“MC-to-PC”) basis for demonstrating that an orphan drug is clinical superiority, and is therefore not the “same drug” as a previously approved orphan drug containing the same active moiety, is supposed to be a pretty …
By Kurt R. Karst – “Driveway moments” – most of us have had them. It’s that moment when we feel compelled to stay in the car and finish listening to something on the radio. This blogger recently had such a moment commuting home from work on …
By Michelle L. Butler – On July 21, 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”)/Health Resources and Services Administration (“HRSA”) announced the availability of an interpretive rule titled “Implementation of the Exclusion of Orphan Drugs for Certain Covered Entities Under the 340B Program,” which …
By Kurt R. Karst – The years-long, knock-down, drag-out fight between the K-V Pharmaceutical Company (“KV”) – now known as Lumara Health Inc. – and FDA (and the Department of Health and Human Services) involving KV’s pre-term birth orphan drug MAKENA (hydroxyprogesterone caproate) Injection, 250 mg/mL, …
By Kurt R. Karst – On May 29th, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations voted 31-18 during a mark-up session to send to the House floor its version of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015, along …
By Jay W. Cormier & Alan M. Kirschenbaum – Last summer, the Health Resources and Services Administration (“HRSA”) promulgated a final regulation to implement a statutory provision, added by the Affordable Care Act, that excludes orphan drugs from the ceiling price limitations of the 340B Program …
By Kurt R. Karst – FDA’s Office of Orphan Products Development (“OOPD”) recently revised its Standard Operating Procedures and Policies (“SOPP”) concerning review of orphan drug designation requests to provide the Office’s policies on designating products for two diseases: scleroderma and pulmonary hypertension. The second version …
By Kurt R. Karst – With primary briefing over (briefs here, here, and here), and a December 13, 2013 Oral Argument before Judges Griffith, Kavanaugh and Randolph concluded, we were waiting with bated breath for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit …
By Kurt R. Karst – We’re now entering the second week of the shutdown of the federal government (or “the lapse period” as some have called it), and there does not appear to be an end in sight. In fact, the environment in Washington, D.C. has …
