In guidance released Monday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provides the timelines it will stick to when reviewing responses to complete response letters (CRLs) for drugs and biologics when a facility assessment or inspection is required in order for the agency to make a decision on the application.   FDA’s ability to conduct on-site inspections has been dramatically curtailed amid the COVID-19 pandemic due to public health concerns and travel restrictions. ...

FDA has released three device-specific guidance documents detailing performance criteria in support of its Safety and Performance Based Pathway. The texts cover magnetic resonance (MR) receive-only coils, spinal plating systems and non-spinal metallic bone screws.   Last year, FDA published guidance on the optional Safety and Performance Based Pathway. The text set out the agency’s thinking on a pathway intended to enable companies to show a new product is as safe ...

In its latest quarterly release of product-specific guidances meant to promote the development of generic drugs, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday posted 13 new and 21 revised draft guidances, bringing the total number of such guidances released by the agency to 1,974.   The guidances are intended to foster generic competition by clarifying the agency’s expectations for the studies required to demonstrate that a generic drug is equivalent to a refe...

Premenopausal women should be considered for inclusion in breast cancer clinical trials, according to new draft guidance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). “Menopausal status should not be the basis of exclusion from any breast cancer clinical trial,” says the draft guidance, which was made available for a 60-day consultation period on 7 October.   The draft guidance puts forward recommendations to help move clinical breast cancer research away from the hi...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued draft guidance for industry on the use of physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) analyses for biopharmaceutics applications. A PBPK analysis uses models and simulations combining physiology, population, and drug substance and product characteristics to mechanistically describe the pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic behaviors of a particular drug product, according to the FDA. The idea behind using this techni...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has finalized a guidance for industry on development of drugs and therapeutic biologics for treating eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), a chronic, allergic inflammatory disease of the esophagus, for which there are currently no approved therapies.   The guidance addresses the agency’s thinking on clinical trials and development programs, focusing on trial population and design, efficacy and safety, as well as pediatric considera...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday released its latest batch of product-specific guidances, posting 19 new and 17 revised draft guidances, bringing the total number of product-specific guidances issued by the agency to 1,938.   The guidances , which FDA posts quarterly, are intended to promote generic competition by clarifying the agency’s expectations for the studies required to demonstrate that a generic drug is equivalent to a reference listed drug...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday issued draft guidance providing recommendations to drugmakers on evaluating cancer drugs in patients with central nervous system (CNS) metastases.   FDA says the guidance is meant to inform clinical trial designs to support product labeling that describes antitumor activity of drugs or biologics in patients with CNS metastases from solid tumors originating in other parts of the body.   "There are few effectiv...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday finalized guidance making recommendations to sponsors encouraging them to enroll male patients in breast cancer clinical trials.   The final guidance comes one year after the agency issued the draft version for comment and includes only minor changes from the previous iteration. (RELATED: FDA calls for men to be enrolled in breast cancer trials , 26 August 2019) .   As in the draft version, FDA explains that ...

In an immediately effective guidance issued Tuesday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets its expectations for the development and licensure of vaccines to prevent coronavirus disease (COVID-19), including considerations for manufacturing, nonclinical and clinical studies and post-licensure requirements.   For a vaccine that would be widely deployed against COVID-19, FDA says it expects sponsors to demonstrate that the vaccine is at least 50% effective in a p...

Since 2007, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a handful of special "priority review" vouchers (PRVs) which allow its recipient to expedite the review of any one of its new drug products. What are these vouchers, why is FDA issuing them and what benefit might they have for society? Find out in our latest Regulatory Explainer on the Priority Review Voucher system. Last updated on 25 February 2020 to include: Vifor Pharma said on 17 February that it p...

Following a series of recalls for the heartburn drug Zantac and other ranitidine drugs due to a genotoxic impurity, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Friday that the levels of the impurity in ranitidine drugs for heartburn and also in the chemically similar ulcer drug nizatidine “are similar to the levels you would expect to be exposed to if you ate common foods like grilled or smoked meats.” The agency also published a table of the ranitidine and nizatidin...