By Kurt R. Karst – In a January 7th letter sent to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, a group of four U.S. Senators take exception to FDA’s recent characterization of the 12-year exclusivity period provided by the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (“BPCIA”) as …
By Kurt R. Karst – Last Friday, 32 State Attorneys General filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the Court to grant the Petition for Writ of Certiorari filed last month by a group of drug purchasers in Louisiana Wholesale Drug Co., Inc., …
By Susan J. Matthees – Last week, FDA announced that the Agency has adopted final amended informed consent regulations. As we noted last year, the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act ("FDAAA") § 801(b)(3)(A) required that FDA amend the informed consent regulations set forth at 21 C.F.R. § …
By Kurt R. Karst – In a notice slated for publication in the January 7th Federal Register, FDA is seeking to end the continued marketing of many unapproved oral prescription drugs for the relief of cough, cold, or allergy. The action will likely affect hundreds of …
By Kurt R. Karst – In a letter recently submitted to FDA by the three principal authors of the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (“BPCIA”) – Representatives Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Jay Inslee (D-WA), and Joe Barton (R-TX) – the legislators take issue with …
By Kurt R. Karst – Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Inc. (“Amphastar”) has filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia an Amended Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief against FDA in Amphastar’s continuing battle to win approval of the company’s long-pending Abbreviated New Drug Application …
By Kurt R. Karst – Another week, another Petition for Writ of Certiorari filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on an issue involving the drug industry. The latest petition comes from Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Ltd. (“Caraco”) and Sun Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Ltd. (“Sun”) and requests the Court’s …
By Kurt R. Karst – In a recent citizen petition submitted to FDA, Sandoz Inc. (“Sandoz”) requests from the Agency a written decision that Cobrek Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Cobrek”), the alleged “first applicant” for a generic version of HECTOROL (doxercalciferol) Injection, has forfeited 180-day exclusivity eligibility. The …
By JP Ellison – In Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the main character is visited by three ghosts who by scaring him with visions of his past, present and future, seek to change him. On December 13, 2010, in the form of a U.S. District Court for …
By Kurt R. Karst – Earlier this week, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), released the text of the proposed Fiscal Year 2011 Omnibus Appropriations Act. The almost 2,000-page bill, if enacted, would fund the government until September 30, 2011. In addition to an …
By Kurt R. Karst – When we last left you in the battle over FDA’s approval of a generic version of sanofi-aventis U.S. L.L.C.’s (“sanofi’s”) blockbuster anti-coagulant drug LOVENOX (enoxaparin sodium injection), Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied …
By Kurt R. Karst – Last Friday, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. (“Teva”) filed its opposition brief to Apotex, Inc.’s (“Apotex’s”) Petition for Writ of Certiorari, which Apotex filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in October asking for a review of the U.S. Court of Appeals for …
By Kurt R. Karst – Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in three cases concerning generic drug preemption - PLIVA Inc. v. Mensing (09-993), Actavis v. Mensing (09-1039), and Actavis v. Demahy (09-1501). As we previously reported, the petitions presented almost identical questions for the …
This week, the Republican Steering Committee selected Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI) to succeed Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) as Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the next Congress. In August 2008, at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Hyman, Phelps & McNamara’s Frank …
By Kurt R. Karst – Speculation was running high that the U.S. Supreme Court would be petitioned on whether a patent settlement agreement (what opponents call “pay-for-delay” agreements or “reverse payments”) involving manufacturers of Ciprofloxacin HCl (CIPRO) is per se lawful under the Sherman Act after …
