On December 7, 2022, FDA announced the availability of the final guidance regarding the enforcement policy for homeopathic drug products. This concludes FDA’s reevaluation of the regulation of homeopathic drugs which it started in 2015. As we reported previously, here, and here, as a result of …
In the wake of President Biden’s July 2021 Executive Order—Promoting Competition in the American Economy—and the exchange of letters between the Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and FDA, the USPTO announced recently a “public listening session” in collaboration with FDA to seek comments on how …
On November 22, 2022, FDA approved CSL Behring’s BLA for Hemgenix (etranacogene dezaparvovec), an AAV-based gene therapy for the treatment of adults with Hemophilia B who currently use Factor IX prophylaxis therapy, have current or historical life-threatening hemorrhage, or have repeated, serious spontaneous bleeding episodes. …
FTC sure thinks so. And the FTC said as much in a recent Amicus Brief (“Brief”) in paragraph IV litigation between Avadel CNS Pharmaceuticals (“Avadel”) and Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc. (“Jazz”). This type of statement from the FTC is unprecedented; not only is the FTC Brief …
On September 30, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Continuing Appropriations and Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023, Division F of which is titled the “FDA User Fee Reauthorization Act of 2022” (“FUFRA”). In addition to reauthorizing for an additional five fiscal years—Fiscal Years 2023-2027—several …
On Friday, November 4, CMS finalized a rule to implement mandatory rebates (called “refunds”) for discarded amounts of separately paid Medicare Part B single-source drugs packaged in single-dose or single-use containers. For a summary of the rule, we refer readers to our July 2022 post …
On October 26, 2022, US Pharmacopeia (USP) Biologics Stakeholder Forum held a workshop on “Collaborating to solve CMC challenges and support efficient development of lentiviral-mediated CART cell therapies.” Panelists discussed CMC challenges for CART therapies, including potency assay development, analytical method transfer, and demonstrating comparability. …
FDA recently published the final guidance document “Comparability Protocols for Postapproval Changes to the Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls Information in an NDA, ANDA, or BLA.” This final guidance provides recommendations to original applicants and holders of approved applications for human drugs and certain biological products …
During last year’s 2021 Pharmaceutical Quality Symposium, CDER described the development of a regulatory framework called FRAME –Framework for Regulatory Advanced Manufacturing Evaluation, to accommodate innovation expected in the next 5-10 years with a focus on 4 technologies: End to End Manufacturing, Distributed Manufacturing, Point-Of-Care, …
Making use of real-world data has long been of interest to stakeholders as having tremendous potential value. These data are routinely collected from a variety of sources, such as electronic health records, providing information on health and healthcare in actual patients, rather than in the …
While COVID-19 and monkeypox may be the public health emergencies garnering much of our current attention, we have been in the midst of another declared public health emergency for nearly 5 years: the opioid crisis. FDA recently issued a Guidance (Exemption and Exclusion From Certain …
As we begin the final quarter of 2022 and the leaves here on the east coast begin to turn and fall, it seems the clock may be running out on FDA and the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) to meet its goal of …
On September 29, 2022, FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) and the Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies (OTAT) held a town hall to answer questions related to gene therapy chemistry, manufacturing, and controls. Wilson Bryan opened this new forum for direct agency …
On September 26, 2022, Biogen Inc. agreed to pay $900 million to the United States and various states to settle a False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit. This lawsuit was brought to the U.S. district court of Massachusetts by former employee and whistleblower Michael Bawduniak in …
On September 29, 2022, FDA approved Amylyx’s NDA for its drug, Relyvrio (sodium phenylbutyrate/taurursodiol), for treatment of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (see FDA announcement here). This approval decision charts a path for the exercise of appropriate flexibility in regulatory decisions for other rare …
