As the debate over skyrocketing drug prices continues, at least one solution has cropped up in nearly every conversation: Reduce the generic drug backlog at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), create more competition and drug prices will come down. But is the generic drug backlog, also known as the abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) backlog, that big of a problem? Or is confusion over what exactly this backlog means and how long it takes FDA to approve gener...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published final Fiscal Year 2016 abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) approvals earlier this month, revealing 651 approvals (though it’s 835 if tentative approvals are included), which was 159 more than the number of approvals for FY 2015 and 242 more than the agency approved in FY 2014 . But that high approval figure for last year also comes as the agency sent more complete response letters (CRLs) than any other year....

With the intent to cut back on the type of litigation that can delay the approval and marketing of generic drugs under 505(b)(2) applications and abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday released a final rule that revises and clarifies its regulations on a number of different parts of the pharmaceutical patent process. The 289-page final rule amends FDA’s regulations to facilitate better compliance with and enforce...

On 21 October, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will meet to discuss plans for the second iteration of the Generic Drug User Fee Act (GDUFA II) under which FDA says it will begin offering eight-month and 10-month reviews of abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) between 2018 and 2022. The speed at which FDA reviews and approves ANDAs has been a hot topic lately, particularly as at least 315 generics have doubled in price since 2010 and many of those seein...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday finalized guidance that will assist abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) submitters seeking approval of a new strength of a drug. The guidance, for applicants preparing to submit to FDA ANDAs and prior approval supplements to ANDAs, highlights serious deficiencies in impurity information that may cause FDA to refuse-to-receive (RTR) an ANDA. Specifically, FDA says the deficiencies include: “(1) Failing to provi...

It’s well known that generic drugs are just as safe and effective as their brand name counterparts. They’re the cheap knockoffs that help more people around the world gain access to innovative and sometimes life-saving treatments; the boring copycats made by companies you’ve never heard of and sold in plain bottles with little fanfare. But what most people, particularly those outside the pharmaceutical industry, don’t realize is that what’s constraining the dissemination...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday announced that it has approved the first generic version of Roche’s Tamiflu (oseltamivir phosphate), a widely used medication for the treatment of the flu (influenza A and B) in patients two weeks of age and older. Tamiflu, first approved in 1999, earned Roche more than $3 billion back in 2009 and more than $400 million in 2015, though its effectiveness was questioned back in 2014. Now, India-based Natco and ...

As the debate around high-priced pharmaceuticals and new ways to lower those costs continues, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is speeding the approval of new generic drugs, according to the latest update to the agency’s in-depth look at the backlog of abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs). The new data (up to 1 July 2016) reveals that FDA has reduced its ANDA workload by about 500 applications in the first six months of 2016 (the ANDA dashboard recapping 2...

Janet Woodcock, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), reported on Monday via email that as of 1 July 2016, CDER has acted on more than 90 percent of the Generic Drug User Fee Amendments (GDUFA) backlog, thereby accomplishing the agency’s backlog commitment more than one year ahead of schedule.  Under the $1.5 billion GDUFA, which allows generic drug companies to pay user fees to FDA for a more consis...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday released draft guidance describing the process for drug companies when they have to update a generic’s label after the reference product (for which the generic is based) is withdrawn for reasons other than safety or effectiveness. The guidance focuses on a problem that has long plagued the generic industry, as generic labels are required by law to mirror their reference product counterparts at the time of approval but s...

The common refrain that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been approving an exorbitantly high number of drug applications for generic drugs, known as abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs), to increase market competition in recent years is slowing down in recent months. In the latest release of raw data on Tuesday of approvals and complete response letters (CRLs), also known as rejections, for ANDAs, FDA said that in the month ending 16 April 2016, it...

A little more than a year since the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) put the finishing touches on a new expedited review process for potentially life-saving medical devices and the agency has accepted almost 60% of the applications of those looking to be a part of the new program. Over the past year, CDRH has made 29 decisions on requests for designation into its voluntary Expedited Access Pathway (EAP) program, an...