30
Jul

With Two Business Days Remaining in July, OGD has Only Approved 17 ANDAs

Although Office of Generic Drugs (OGD) total activity numbers (including issuance of Complete Response Letters (CRLs), etc.) will not be posted until about 2 weeks after the close of the month, it is disappointing that the number of approvals this late in the month appears only in the teens.
While there are many things going on at OGD (training of new staff, Guidance and Policy development, the reorganization to a Super Office, among other important things) the bottom line for industry is the number of approvals that OGD issues and the number and timeliness of OGD deficiency responses it receives. But approvals rule the roost in terms of industry importance because, after all, you cannot sell products that receive CRLs.

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24
Jul

Phew! Pre-June 20, 2014, ANDA Applicants Can Rest Easy, Regarding Stability!

In previous post earlier this week, we were hoping to discover the Agency position on this particularly important issue. Thus, the Agency has decided to make a bright line of June 20, 2014 as the start date for the requirement for 3 batches with 6 months room temperature and 6 months of accelerated stability at time of original submission.

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22
Jul

OGD Announces Changes in Key Leadership Positions as Part of its Reorganization

The Office of Generic Drugs’ (OGD) elevation to a Super Office in the Center of Drug Evaluation and Research has come at a challenging time for the Generic Drug Program. The new Office structure is presented below and represents a dramatic organizational change to us old timers. But this is progress and represents the need to move the program in a different direction for today’s environment.

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21
Jul

OGD to Reach Decision Soon on Stability Requirements for RTR ANDAs First Submitted Before June 20, 2014

If you are one of the about 600 ANDA applicants submitted in the first 19 days of June, or have one of the additional ~ 100-200 ANDAs that have not yet received notification of acceptance for ANDAs submitted prior to June 2014, a decision is expected soon on what stability requirements you will need to meet upon resubmission.

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14
Jul

Nine Months into FY 2014 and the Numbers Stagger the Mind

With 9 months gone in FY 2014 and the June Generic Drug Activity Report just released, things don’t look so good! The June ANDA submissions not only beat any previous one-month total ever, but shattered the previous record by almost 275%. The big problem when looking at the numbers in the Activity Report is not only seen in the number of ANDAs submitted, but also in the disturbing trend in the numbers in general.

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10
Jul

Two GDUFA Guidances Announced in the Federal Register and Published On CDER’s Web Page

The FDA announced the availability of two Guidance documents – on Prior Approval Supplements and the other concerning Easily Correctable Deficiencies (ECDs). These eagerly anticipated documents have also published on the CDER web page.

The FR notice states relative to the Prior Approval Supplements (PAS) Guidance that “this draft guidance is intended to assist applicants preparing to submit to FDA PASs and amendments to PASs for abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs). It describes FDA’s performance metric goals for PASs and clarifies how FDA will handle a PAS and amendments to a PAS for an ANDA subject to the GDUFA performance metric goals.”

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01
Jul

Compounding Back in the News as FDA Adds 25 Drugs to the Do Not Compound List

The FDA is proposing to update its list of drug products (previously found in its regulations at 21 CFR 216.24) that have been removed from the market for safety or efficacy and cannot be legally compounded. It has also revised one product relative to its dosage form that allows compounding under the pharmacy compounding exemption. Since FDA has approved an ophthalmic form of bromfenac, it has removed the restriction to now permit the compounding in certain situations for this drug product but only for ophthalmic use, whereas this drug was previously excluded for any use by the Rule.

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