Advertising and promotion (ad promo) of prescription drugs is regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In 1992, the agency implemented Subpart H of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) to allow for the accelerated approval of new drugs for serious or life-threatening illnesses. Approval of a drug through the Subpart H pathway introduced a range of regulatory requirements, some of which had specific implications for the ad promo of Subpart H drug...

India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) implemented the New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules in 2019 to expedite the drug development and approval processes. This article provides an overview of those processes; explains the rule-specific terminology, such as the definitions of “drug” and “new drug” under Indian law; and outlines strategies for speeding up the approval processes and optimizing registration of prescription medicines in India.   Keywo...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday issued a question-and-answer guidance  to provide clarity to manufacturers on reporting post-approval changes to disposable manufacturing material.   The guidance covers changes made to new drug applications (NDAs), biologics license applications (BLAs) or abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) and applies to all manufacturing establishments, including those that perform functions under contract.   During the...

The US Congress should take concerns raised by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seriously and give the agency more authority around accelerated approvals, including the power to expedite the withdrawal of drugs from the market, according to a perspective article from three experts on drug regulation and health policy.   The perspective, written by Rachel E. Sachs, JD, MPH, of Washington University in St. Louis, Julie M. Donohue, PhD, of the University of Pittsbur...

Racial, ethnic and sociodemographic disparities that are present in clinical trials and compassionate use agreements for cancer immunotherapy during the pre-approval period are reduced, but not eliminated after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves these cancer treatments, according to recent research published in JAMA Network Open .   “The time frame leading up to FDA approval is an important period in which to observe disparities,” Theresa Ermer, MD, of...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) needs to take a more proactive approach in combatting misinformation and communicating decisions to the public when approving drugs, especially when the decision goes against the recommendations of its advisory committees. Not doing so will continue to undermine the public’s trust in the agency, said a panel of former FDA commissioners and others at the Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI) annual conference on Tuesday.   Califf ad...

Expedited regulatory programs recognize the need for products targeting serious illnesses with unmet clinical need to proceed to market as soon as possible, without necessarily providing the amount of evidence required for regular market authorization. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a race to develop treatments and vaccines, and the length of time required for regulatory considerations has been widely discussed. We seek to determine whether emerging regulator...

Regulatory and industry experts agree that completing confirmatory studies quickly is essential to the success of the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) accelerated approval program, with some suggesting that new legislation might be necessary to reliably get results from these trials in a timelier manner.   Robert Califf, head of clinical policy and strategy for Verily and Google Health and the Biden Administration’s nominee to be FDA commissioner, said a legisla...

The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) approved 50 new drug therapies in 2021. While the figure is a slight decrease from 2020 , more drugs were designated as first-in-class and used the accelerated approval pathway than in previous years.   The approvals reported by CDER do not include biologics license applications (BLAs) approved by FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). In 2021, CBER approved...

Policymakers looking to rein in Medicare spending should look beyond the lens of the accelerated approval pathway, as drugs that exclusively fall under this indication make up a small percentage of overall Medicare spending, according to a recent research letter written by Benjamin N. Rome, of the Program on Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL) research group at Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women’s Hospital, and colleagues.   “Medicare is spending more an...

This article provides a summary of drugs and biologic products that have recently become available for the pediatric population in the United States. It highlights prescription products for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), psoriasis, active polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (pJIA), active psoriatic arthritis, Ebola virus treatment, spinal muscular atrophy, and bladder dysfunction that became available in 2019, 2020, and 2021 after completion of pe...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) offered some advice to help ensure smoother reviews of abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) post-approval supplements and addressed how certain changes should be categorized at the 10 November meeting of the Association for Accessible Medicines” (AAM) GRx+Biosim conference.   Officials were asked to address common issues affecting ANDA post-approval chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) submissions. Agency officials ...