Two US senators have proposed new legislation that would grant an unprecedented 15 years of marketing exclusivity to certain types of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products. Background The bill, known as the Dormant Therapies Act of 2014, is the second piece of legislation introduced in as many days by Sens. Orrin Hatch and Michael Bennet (D-CO). The duo introduced the Promise for Antibiotics and Therapeutics for Health (PATH) Act on 10 December 2014. R...

New legislation would allow the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve some antibiotics through a special "limited use" regulatory pathway, all in the hope of bringing more antibiotics to market to help fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria. A Limited Population Pathway The bill, the Promise for Antibiotics and Therapeutics for Health (PATH) Act , was introduced on 10 December 2014 by Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT). At its core, the legis...

The US House has quickly passed legislation making changes to the  Neglected Tropical Disease Priority Review Voucher  (PRV) system in the hopes of making it more enticing to pharmaceutical companies, and in particular to those developing new treatments for the Ebola virus. S.2917 , the  Adding Ebola to the FDA Priority Review Voucher Program Act , passed the US House of Representatives by unanimous consent on 3 December 2013, just one day after the same bill was pas...

A new bill introduced in the US House of Representatives would grant existing pharmaceutical products an additional six months of marketing exclusivity if a company is able to demonstrate the product is able to treat or prevent a rare disease or condition. Background The bill, the Orphan Product Extensions Now Accelerating Cures and Treatments Act of 2014 (OPEN ACT), appears to be loosely modeled off a similar plan in place for pediatric products. Under the US Food a...

Both the US House of Representatives and Senate are moving forward with identical pieces of legislation meant to overhaul the Neglected Tropical Disease Priority Review Voucher (PRV) system in the hopes of making it more enticing to pharmaceutical companies, and in particular those developing new treatments for the Ebola virus. Bill Background The legislation, the Adding Ebola to the FDA Priority Review Voucher Program Act , would make three notable changes...

US legislators in the House of Representatives have passed a Senate bill which would overhaul the manner in which the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves sunscreen ingredients and other products through a rarely used regulatory pathway known as the Time-and-Extent process (TEA), all but assuring the bill will be passed into law. Background The bill, known as the Sunscreen Innovation Act (SIA) , follows extensive complaints by several companies that their sun...

Legislators in the US Senate have unveiled a new piece of legislation meant to incentivize companies to go after the Ebola virus by making critical and long-sought changes to a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory program. Background As Focus explained in October 2014 , a recent outbreak of Ebola has led to a scramble for new drugs and vaccines to help treat and prevent the virus. At present, there are no recognized treatments for the disease. Some publi...

Last month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it would soon seek to regulate lab-developed tests more similarly to in vitro diagnostics (IVDs), citing the devices' increasing complexity and role in critical clinical decision-making. And while the plan has received some pushback from legal groups , including the Washington Legal Foundation, it might soon have another, more prominent opponent: Members of Congress. Background LDTs are, as their name imp...

Senate legislators have released a new iteration of the Sunscreen Innovation Act , a bill which seeks to accelerate the approval of long-delayed new sunscreen ingredients in the US, which would go beyond sunscreen ingredients to overhaul part of the process used to approve over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. Background As explained in our article on the House version of the Sunscreen Innovation Act , the bill has long been focused on the Time and Extent (TEA) application ...

In December 2012, the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) drug regulatory body, the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), indicated that it wanted to limit the use of some phthalates as excipients in medicines. Now two legislators have a message for the agency: There's more that needs to be done. Background FDA's December 2012 guidance, Limiting the Use of Certain Phthalates as Excipients in CDER-Regulated Products , explained that the agency had foun...

Four US senators are pressuring the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to walk back a rule proposed by the agency in May 2014 that would make it more difficult to import unapproved drugs into the US. Background The proposed rule, Administrative Destruction of Certain Drugs Refused Admission to the United States , is meant to tweak the agency's pharmaceutical import provisions under Section 801(b) of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) . Under the ...

Yesterday, US legislators in the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing to discuss how the federal environment—including the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) regulations—might be improved to bolster drug innovation. But while the pharmaceutical industry, device industry and patient groups found themselves well represented at the meeting, one prominent stakeholder found itself conspicuously excluded from the meeting: The US Food and Drug Administration. ...