30
Jul

Reports of Brand Name Confusion Results in FDA Safety Communication

For those of you who have requested specific brand names from the FDA for your products and have had numerous names denied for reasons you cannot wrap you head around, take heart that FDA can make a mistake too. FDA reported today that there were at least 50 dispensing errors between two products that actually underwent the rigorous FDA name review process.

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29
Jul

Just When You Thought All the Questions on 180-Day Exclusivity Were Answered!

Late Tuesday evening, the FDA placed a “Dear Applicant Letter” on Regulations.gov relative to a request for comments from interested and affected parties on two very interesting issues relative to 180-day exclusivity. The drug product in question is Cyclosporine Ophthalmic Emulsion. As part of its consideration, FDA is considering whether the fact that FDA did not issue an Acknowledgement Letter for this drug product until after the patent expired impacts this analysis. FDA also seeks comment on whether there are any other factors that are material to this question.

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27
Jul

Quality Metrics Draft Guidance Issues

Today, the FDA released its draft Guidance entitled, “Request for Quality Metrics.” The document outlines the FDA’s thinking on the use of quality metrics data “to help develop compliance and inspection policies and practices, such as risk-based inspection scheduling of drug manufacturers; to improve the Agency’s ability to predict, and therefore, possibly mitigate, future drug shortages; and to encourage the pharmaceutical industry to implement state-of-the-art, innovative quality management systems for pharmaceutical manufacturing.”

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20
Jul

FDA Denies Petition and Revises Bioequivalence Guidance for Lubiprostone

The innovator for Lubiprostone (trade name Amitza) petitioned the FDA to change the requirements for demonstrating bioequivalence of the product to require additional BE studies with clinical endpoints for various other approved indications. The FDA explained in its denial letter that it has been reviewing the approval requirements for all locally acting drug products in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and had decided to revise its BE recommendations for all. However, its revised recommendations actually made the path to approval for a duplicate version of the drug potentially easier for generic entrants.

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17
Jul

Special Termination of Debarment for One FDA Reviewer is Granted

In a Federal Register Notice today, the FDA announced the termination of permanent debarment of David Brancato.  David was one of the original FDA staff members implicated in the Generic Drug scandal.  He was originally debarred on January 6, 1994. Special termination of debarment can occur when there is a determination that an individual substantially […]

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