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...

The European Commission’s Medical Device Coordination Group (MDCG) on Friday unveiled its plans for releasing almost 50 future guidance documents related to the Medical Devices Regulation (MDR) and the In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation (IVDR), with the bulk of the new guidance coming on the oversight of notified bodies (NBs) and clinical investigations and evaluation (CIE). The list also notes that much of the guidance will be endorsed by the MDCG later this year or in 202...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday finalized a question and answer guidance on the type of manufacturing facility information that should be included in applications submitted to the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research and the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. FDA explains that the guidance is meant to help companies understand how not to submit extraneous information or misplaced or missing information that could result in delays, Refu...

In June 2017, Leah Christl, former biosimilar lead at FDA, told a conference in Chicago that interchangeable biosimilars were likely coming to the US market within two years . And although no interchangeable biosimilar has been approved by FDA yet, and Christl has since moved on to Amgen , progress on interchangeable biosimilars has been made, albeit slowly, in the intervening years. Most recently, Boehringer Ingelheim announced that it has completed , as of last ...

FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) on Friday released its FY 2020 draft and final guidance list, which features a few repeats from last year and new drafts coming on device servicing and remanufacturing, unique device identification and patient-reported outcome measures used in device submissions, among others. As in years past, CDRH divides the list between “A-list” draft and final guidances, which are a priority, and a smaller “B-list” of draft an...

As part of a push to reduce administrative burdens, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday finalized guidance on an optional streamlined submission process for determining the risk of an investigational in vitro diagnostic (IVD) in a clinical trial where an investigational IVD is being co-developed with an oncology investigational drug. The submission process, first proposed in draft guidance in April 2018 , is meant to help sponsors determine if an IVD...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released tables that can be included in submissions for new drug and biologic applications to provide information regarding the bioanalytical methods for pharmacokinetic assessments. “The templates in this guidance are applicable to bioanalytical procedures such as chromatographic assays (CCs) and ligand-binding assays (LBAs) that quantitatively determine the levels of drugs and their metabolites and therapeutic protein...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday finalized guidance to help sponsors design and conduct nonclinical studies for developing investigational enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) products. ERT products, which generally involve exogenously supplying the missing or defective protein, can treat an array of disorders resulting from inherited defective genes (e.g., Gaucher disease, Fabry disease, Pompe disease and mucopolysaccharidoses), FDA explains. The n...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday published the second in a series of four guidance documents on patient-focused drug development, with this latest draft helping sponsors identify what is most important to patients with respect to their experience with disease burden and treatment. In determining what’s important, FDA recommends that sponsors use qualitative research methods, which can generate in-depth thoughts from patients in their own words through...

A section of the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act) amended the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) and removed certain software functions from the definition of a medical device. In addition to drafting new guidance on clinical decision support software, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday released final guidance explaining what digital health products are no longer devices and are no longer subject to FDA regulations. Examples of such...

Thanks to the FDA Reauthorization Act of 2017 (FDARA) , the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday published a new draft guidance with “both binding and nonbinding provisions” related to electronic submissions for medical devices. At the outset of the seven-page draft, FDA warns that it has concluded “that it is not feasible to describe and implement the electronic format(s) that would apply” to all the device submissions in one guidance document, so this g...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday released new draft guidance explaining how sponsors can improve the design and conduct of medical device clinical investigations by using patient experience, perspectives and other relevant information. The 10-page draft mainly addresses four questions: What approaches might sponsors use to engage patient advisors (defined by FDA as those who have dealt with or are dealing with a particular condition but are not inv...