Benefit-risk (BR) assessment, a central part of regulatory decision making, has become increasingly structured in response to the need for consistency and transparency, and in alignment with the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) 2021 draft BR guidance. Early planning and established processes are critical to successful execution. To help regulatory affairs professionals guide clinical development teams in planning and conducting patient-focused structured BR assess...

For most of regulatory science’s established history, regulations governing drug safety and efficacy were established on a country-by-country basis. For instance, a US-centric framework was appropriate when most US-manufactured drugs were distributed and sold largely on the US market. Today, the pharmaceutical industry’s expanding global reach means drug distribution is multinational, yet the current regulatory frameworks still are largely national or regional in focus. Th...

RAPS today announced the release of its updated Regulatory Competency Framework , describing the essential elements of what is required of regulatory professionals at four key career and professional levels. The framework is relevant to regulatory professionals in multiple healthcare product sectors, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices and biotech, and is useful to individual professionals, hiring managers and organizations. “The Regulatory Competency Framework ...

US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and pharmaceutical industry experts gathered Thursday in Silver Spring, MD, to discuss how FDA assesses the benefits and risks of new drugs from the preclinical to postmarket phases. The meeting was conducted as part of FDA preparations in drafting new guidance in FY 2020 on the benefit-risk assessment of new drugs and biologics. Theresa Mullin, associate director for strategic initiatives at FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and ...

In 2016, RAPS released its Regulatory Competency Framework , a tool to help professionals and organizations develop regulatory training, and plan career and professional development. A few organizations began using the Framework immediately. We spoke to former RAPS Chair Sue James, who is vice president of global regulatory affairs at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Consumer Healthcare about the Framework and how it has been used at GSK. Regulatory Focus : What do you see as th...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is preparing to advance the use of structured benefit-risk assessments in its decision making under its commitments in the recently reauthorized Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA VI), and agency officials on Monday laid out key considerations for sponsors. Background In 2009, FDA began work to develop a structured approach to conducting benefit-risk assessments as part of an effort to bring more clarity and consistency t...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday issued updates related to two International Conference for Harmonization (ICH) guidelines, including a revised guideline on the efficacy portion of the common technical document (CTD) and changes to ICH's list for permitted daily exposure (PDE) to solvents. For the first update, FDA issued a draft guidance for public comment in line with ICH's revised guideline on the efficacy portion of the CTD, M4E(R2) – Efficacy , w...

Writing in JAMA and FDA’s Voice blog late this week, outgoing US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Robert Califf took to task any doubters on the necessity of an independent FDA that can assess an investigational drug’s safety and efficacy. “Some argue that individuals and their physicians should be free to make these decisions without relying on FDA to make determinations about marketing approval. However, the complexity of the data as well as examples ...

Concerned with a lack of specifics, Pfizer and US medical device industry group AdvaMed are calling on the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to amend its draft guidance on factors to consider regarding the benefits and risks for compliance and enforcement actions. The draft guidance, released in July and known as “Factors to Consider Regarding Benefit-Risk in Medical Device Product Availability, Compliance, and Enforcement Decisions,” is meant to bring FDA’s be...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday finalized two guidance documents: one on factors to consider when making benefit-risk determinations for premarket approval (PMA) and de novo classifications, and one on the concepts that sponsors and other stakeholders should consider when choosing to collect patient preference information (PPI) that may inform FDA's benefit-risk determinations. The 62-page guidance on benefit-risk determinations, finalized more th...

The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking input on its newly developed regulatory framework for medical devices and in vitro diagnostics (IVDs). The framework, which establishes a common global model for regulating devices and IVDs and provides countries with a two-phased path to implementation, was released for public comment in May. WHO began its work developing the framework in 2015 after the World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted Resolution WHA67.20 ,...

RAPS has released its new Regulatory Competency Framework , a tool to help design training and map professional and career development plans for regulatory professionals. The one-of-a-kind Framework is beneficial for individual professionals as well as regulatory employers and academics developing curriculum and education. The Framework was previewed during last October’s 2015 Regulatory Convergence conference. In his opening remarks, then-RAPS Chairman Rainer ...