Final guidance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) specifies when sponsors must conduct pediatric studies for new cancer drugs as well as when those requirements can be waived or deferred.   Sponsors are required to evaluate these oncology drugs in pediatric populations for applications submitted on or after 18 August 2020, under changes made by the FDA Reauthorization Act of 2017 (FDARA).   The guidance addresses molecularly targeted oncology drugs for ...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final guidance on its criteria for accepting abbreviated new drug applications for synthetic peptide drugs of recombinant DNA (rDNA) origin.   The guidance is meant to spur the development of these complex drugs.  The agency also rejected industry calls to eliminate the impurity limit thresholds for accepting these submissions as abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs).   The guidance, which finalizes 2017 draft ...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday issued 13 new and eight revised draft product-specific guidances intended to facilitate the development of generic drugs.   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 reference listed drug (RLD). FDA’s current count of product-specific guidances sits at 1,896 with this latest release....

A strong local presence in EU markets is needed when seeking labelling exemptions that help reduce the cost of providing orphan products, according to experts who spoke at RAPS Euro Convergence 2021.   Manufacturers of orphan drugs can gain exemptions from some labelling requirements at an EU level and from individual member states, a potentially valuable flexibility for companies that make orphan drugs targeting very small numbers of patients. Such products face speci...

To support the development of therapeutics for COVID-19, the European Commission on Thursday announced a new strategy intended to bring at least three to five new COVID-19 therapeutics to market this year.   The strategy, which includes more than €140 million in funding, aims to streamline the development of promising new medicines and ensure their speedy rollout across the EU, complementing the strategy the Commission deployed for COVID-19 vaccines last year. (RELATED...

Issuance of a product specific guidance should not “diminish innovation or creativity” in generic drug development, Robert Lionberger, director for the office of research and standards in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) Office of Generic Drugs, said at a 5 May webinar on the development of product specific guidance.   FDA officials said that the number of a product specific guidances (PSGs) issued by the Office of G...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday revoked a policy issued in the final days of the Trump administration that was purportedly aimed at increasing transparency related to drug review timelines.   The policy, announced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on 15 January 2021, would have required FDA to publish “redundant” information on new drug applications (NDAs) and abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) submitted to the agency for...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday released a new questions and answers guidance for generic drugmakers addressing generic product development and abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) submissions and assessments during the COVID-19 public health emergency.   “FDA recognizes that the COVID-19 public health emergency may impact the development of generic drug products, interrupt or delay ANDA applicants’ bioequivalence studies, and impact the submissi...

Following a dispute with the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) that resulted in its initial notice being withdrawn, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday reissued its notice announcing fee rates for its newly created over-the-counter (OTC) monograph drug user fee program (OMUFA) for FY2021.   FDA initially issued the notice on 29 December, but it was quickly withdrawn by HHS over public outcry against FDA’s plans to collect user fees fro...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week issued 36 new and revised draft product-specific guidances meant to facilitate the development of generic drugs by clarifying the agency’s expectations for the studies required to demonstrate bioequivalence (BE) to a reference listed drug (RLD).   The latest batch of guidances includes 22 new and 14 revised draft guidances covering drugs to treat prostate cancer, hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis and numerous other cond...

On Monday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a series of efforts and a day-long conference centered on addressing the unmet needs of patients with rare diseases. FDA leaders announced the initiatives in recognition of Rare Disease Day, observed on February 28.   A new request for applications (RFA) issued by FDA augments the agency’s Orphan Products Grants Program. The RFA is seeking natural history studies to address unmet needs in rare diseases, l...

The office tasked with overseeing pharmaceutical quality within the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) released its annual report for 2020 on Thursday, highlighting its effort in a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic.   In its previous annual report, the Office of Pharmaceutical Quality (OPQ) touted its participation in nearly one third of the preapproval inspections FDA carried out in 2019. For 2020, OPQ instead foc...