Regulatory Affairs

A number of presenters from Office of Generic Drugs (OGD) at the GPhA Fall Technical Workshop noted that “We have listened to what you have said and we hear you” and have indicated that MaPP 5200.3 that addressed communication with industry (see previous post here) will be revised. Industry representatives have indicated that the transparency in the communication with OGD is something that is essential to being able to make reasonable business decisions in a timely manner and are needed to appropriately run their business organization.

In a presentation to the Generic Pharmaceutical Association Fall Technical Workshop today, Dr. Janet Woodcock, Director, Center of Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), told the audience that the new CDER quality initiatives under GDUFA are designed to have an Integrated team review to Chemistry Manufacturing and Controls, microbiology, dissolution and inspections through the new Office of Pharmaceutical Quality. The inclusion of dissolution review appears to remove that assessment from the bioequivalence review within the Office of Generic Drugs’ (OGD) team.

The Office of Generic Drugs (OGD) listed 6 first-to-file (FTF) ANDAs with Paragraph IV (PIV) challenges yesterday. It is interesting to note that all were originally submitted in 2014-the oldest submission date was in April 2014 and the newest in July of this year. We know that OGD gives priority acceptance review to FTF ANDAs and the 2014 dates may signify that the priority acceptance review of PIV submissions is in full swing.

A day after writing a post about abuse-deterrent products and their potential impact on patients, the generic drug industry and the FDA, the Agency approved the third opioid extended-release product with abuse-deterrent information in its labeling approved via a supplemental new drug application, the drug Embeda (morphine sulfate/naltrexone hydrochloride) Extended-release Capsules.

In the case of abuse-deterrent products, the FDA has waded into some deep water and it seems the water continues to deepen. Clarity around what FDA really wants and expects from such products remains murky at best.

Today, FDA published its final guidance on New Chemical Entity (NCE) Exclusivity Determinations for Certain Fixed-Combination Drug Products. The Guidance comes about 7.5 months after the February 2014 Federal Register notice first announcing the new Agency position was published. While some parties are happy with the decision to award NCE exclusivity if one of the components is a first time approval (the previous Agency position was that if one component had been previously approved, then the combination was not eligible for the 5-year protection), others are crying in their soup (and in Federal Court) about the change.

With a record number of ANDAs received by the Office of Generic Drugs (OGD) and a modern day record low number of approvals, we move into FY 2015 still looking for the bright spot.