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...

Achieving health equity – the opportunity for all patients to live a healthy life, irrespective of their circumstances – requires the collective effort of the entire medical product development ecosystem. An example of such a collaboration took place at the September 2022 RAPS Convergence in Phoenix, Arizona, with joint presentations by representatives from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Health Canada, and industry (Pfizer) who discussed enhancing diversity in ...

The scope and complexity of requirements for global clinical trial disclosures and data sharing have increased substantially over the last 20 years. Most leading countries have specific regulations pertaining to trial conduct, and many have set up patient registries for collecting and analyzing data on patient outcomes. More recently, authorities have initiated inspections relating to disclosure to ensure compliance with regulations, and transparency advocates continue to ...

Drugmakers and clinician organizations praised the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recent draft guidance containing recommendations on developing a Race and Ethnicity Diversity Plan to improve enrollment of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in clinical trials. But in public comments, they also called for greater details on the types of data that should be used to assess adequate enrollment of these populations, how these diversity plans should be applied to...

ICH E10 provides specific guidance on the choice of control groups for clinical trials, but there are additional considerations for choosing a control group for a pediatric trial. In this article, the author looks at different types of control groups and the specific challenges that present when considering the design for a pediatric trial, such as the medical condition being treated, the potential patient population, suitability of comparators, and availability of real-wo...

The US Food and Drug Administration, as part of an end-of-year spate of guidance documents, has issued a draft guidance for sponsors who wish to use digital tech to aid in remote clinical data acquisition.   Digital health technologies (DHTs) stand to benefit clinical investigations in a multitude of ways, but regulatory considerations have to be weighed as the technologies are employed, noted the agency in setting out the background for the draft guidance, issued in l...

For drugs and biologics that receive accelerated approval, could information drawn from real-world data sources supplant traditional postapproval clinical trials to confirm that the therapies have benefit? Real-world data (RWD) are not yet robust enough to confirm the benefit of drugs awarded accelerated approval based on surrogate endpoints, answered the authors of a recent study.   “The findings of this cross-sectional study suggest that none of the 50 [Food and Drug...

This article reviews Chinese laws governing healthcare data and genomic resources during 1998-2021 and their impact on clinical research in humans by pharmaceutical companies. Companies conducting such research must be vigilant about complying with the complex legal requirements governing the research and identifying potential risks and mitigation strategies for compliance. The analysis includes review of various legal requirements issued by the People’s Republic of China ...

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced that its long-delayed EU clinical trial portal and database are fully functional, paving the way for the launch of the EU Clinical Trial Information System (CTIS) and the application of the EU Clinical Trial Regulation early next year.   The CTIS was originally expected in September 2018; however, a series of delays have pushed back the launch date for the system, and the EU Clinical Trial Regulation it is intended to suppo...

Welcome to the inaugural issue of RF Quarterly featuring original, thematically developed content by regulatory experts addressing key areas and emerging issues in the global regulatory landscape. RF Quarterly is a member-exclusive addition to the regular monthly  Regulatory Focus  feature articles and replaces the former quarterly article series. The theme for this issue is Global Clinical Trials.   Clinical trials are an essential component of pharmaceutical re...

In recent years, global clinical trials have become standard, and for a good reason. In broad terms, expanding clinical trials across the world provides a better opportunity for demonstrating the true impact of an investigational drug. Global clinical trials offer key advantages to patients and industry, but smaller companies may be hesitant to participate in global trials, wondering if the inevitable challenges outweigh the benefits. The key considerations in designing a ...

This article provides an overview of Health Canada’s plans to modernize its clinical trials regulations and enhance health care agility in the regulatory framework for its health care products by making regulations more flexible and adaptive to innovation. The author discusses how clinical trials in several health care product lines can be modernized and looks at how lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic experience can help set up a more flexible regulatory framework ...