02
Sep

Second Potassium Chloride Oral Solution Approved by FDA – Will Enforcement Action follow?

On August 19, 2015, the FDA approved a second 505(b)(2) drug application for potassium chloride oral solution, a potassium replacement therapy typically for patients taking potassium-depleting diuretics. Previous to this approval, FDA approved another 505(b)(2) application for the drug on December 22, 2014.

Prior to that date, there were a number of marketed unapproved prescription drug products for potassium chloride oral solution on the market as “grandfathered” drugs or “DESI similar and related” drugs. The market for potassium replacement therapy is rather large and, while there are numerous approved solid oral dosage forms available in the marketplace, many patients cannot take those products for various reasons. Only time will tell, but one might think that this second potassium chloride oral solution approval may signal another enforcement action in the near future.

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02
Sep

August 2015 ANDA Approvals Break a GDUFA Record, But Receipts Flounder

The Office of Generic Drugs (OGD) broke its old post-GDUFA approvals record of 57 by one, issuing 58 full approvals in August 2015. OGD issued 6 Tentative Approvals in the month for a total of 64 approval actions on ANDAs for the month. This is good news for OGD in a time of continued scrutiny by industry relative to its approval productivity. Quite interestingly, the number of new ANDA receipts for the month was only 32, the third lowest for this fiscal year, and gives OGD only its second month (and second month in a row) where approvals exceeded receipts this fiscal year.

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27
Aug

Draft Biosimilar Naming Guidance Hits the Street

FDA released its long awaited Guidance on naming of Biosimilar products (Nonproprietary Naming of Biological Products – Guidance for Industry) today. In what is not too much of a surprise, especially after the first approved biosimilars name had a suffix (Zarxio, filigrastim-sndz), the FDA opted for most biosimilar products to have a suffix. In addition, FDA is proposing to assign a suffix to the originator biologic products.

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18
Aug

MaPP to Nowhere Now has Coordinates to Find the Treasure

or those of you who troll the CDER web page, you may have noticed that the Office of Generic Drugs (OGD) posted a revision of MaPP 5200.3 entitled “Communications with Industry with respect to pre-GDUFA Year Three Abbreviated New Drug Applications” last night. OGD’s issuance of revision 1 of the MaPP clearly provides industry with much of what they have been asking for.

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11
Aug

FDA Clarifies Issues Regarding Outsourcing Pharmacies

The FDA has received numerous questions “about whether entities engaged in various types of activities (e.g., a facility that is compounding only non-sterile drugs or only repackaging biological products) should register as an outsourcing facility.”  Firms are still confused about whether they qualify to register and this new document entitled, Guidance for Entities Considering Whether […]

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03
Aug

It’s Official – A New Guidance Document for Analytical Method Validations

  Last week, the FDA released a Guidance entitled Analytical Procedures and Method Validations for Drugs and Biologics (here)  which replaces the 2000 Draft Guidance document “Analytical Procedures and Method Validation” and the 1987 Guidance document “Guidelines for Submitting Samples and Analytical Data for Methods Validation”. The new Guidance covers the required information relating to […]

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