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...

The pharmaceutical industry would like to get more clarity on the timing of drug-drug interaction (DDI) studies and the scope of these DDI studies in their comments to regulators on the proposed International Council for Harmonization’s (ICH) M12 guideline, said a regulator at an ICH regional meeting sponsored by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada on 24 February.   Rajanikanth Madabushi, associate director for guidance and scientific policy at ...

The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of Pharmaceutical Quality (OPQ) reported that progress has been made over the past year in advancing its quality management maturity initiative and in its quality assessment review process in its 2022 annual report.   The report also describes progress made in other areas under OPQ’s remit. The office’s previous two reports focused largely on its COVID-19 response. (RELATED:  FDA’s OPQ reports on drug quality efforts ...

The European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMA), the Heads of Medicines Agencies (HMA), and the European Commission are calling for representatives from the research community, pharmaceutical sponsors, academics and regulators to participate in a new multistakeholder platform (MSP) or forum to share and implement ideas for improving clinical trials in the EU.   The call for participation is being launched under last year’s EC-HMA-EMA initiative Accelerating Clinical Tri...

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...

The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) should brief pilot participants ahead of the actual assessments and use a simplified rubric for scoring or rating a manufacturers quality management maturity (QMM) program. These were some of the lessons learned as the agency develops a future rating program for evaluating manufacturers on drug quality, according to results reported in a 10 January article published in The AAPS Journal .   These pilots “afforded FDA the opp...

The definition of “dietary supplement” in the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act includes several provisions limiting what can be a legal dietary supplement based on the ingredients used and delivery form, as well as whether a substance has a history of drug use. This article explores the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) use of this last provision, often called “drug preclusion.” The authors examine the history of the provision, Congress’s purported purpose for ...

The pharmaceutical industry would like the International Council for Harmonization (ICH) to clarify dosing information for rifampin and requests additional information on the use of biomarkers as a type of drug-drug interaction study (DDI), while the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and Pfizer want more flexibility in developing a DDI strategy.   The comments were made in response to the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) call for feedb...

The assessment aid (AAid), an initiative of the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE), was introduced in 2018 as a pilot program to help streamline the agency’s review of oncology drug applications. In this article, Genentech shares its experience with the AAid to date and provides recommendations for preparing the AAid and improving the process to fully realize its benefits. Keywords – assessment aid, FDA OCE pilots, oncology dr...

The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) draft guidance on risk management plans (RMPs) has overstepped the agency’s statutory bounds in requiring manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) as well as prescription drug manufacturers to submit risk management plans (RMPs) to avert drug shortages.   This requirement could impose the very drug shortages it is designed to prevent, instead of just targeting those products at risk of drug shortage, pharmace...

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...

Welcome to another installment of This Week at FDA, your weekly source for updates – big and small – on FDA, drug and medical device regulation, and what we’re reading from around the web. This week, we get a glimpse at FDA’s Spring regulatory agenda and get tips on several upcoming guidances. Plus, we learn about a new 510(k) pilot program for CBER-regulated medical devices.   Next week, FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) will ...