Reading Derrick Gingery’s article “ANDA Approval Records Will End As U.S. FDA Mops Up Backlog” (here) in today’s Pink Sheet about Dr. Woodcock’s contention that the clearance or “mop up” of the backlog will impact the number of generic drug approvals, I was somewhat stopped in my tracks.  Granted, the backlog of old applications did contribute to the number of approvals but,

Excipients are components used and intentionally added to a drug product with no expectation that they will have a therapeutic effect.  A novel excipient is one that has never been used and “reviewed in an FDA approved drug product or does not have an established use in foods”.  Since the beginning of time, the Agency has struggled with evaluation of novel excipients in INDs,

As of the postings both on the FDA daily approvals list (here) and the FDA All Approvals List (here), the morning of December 3, 2019 OGD lists 49 full approval actions and 8 tentative approval actions for a total of 57 approval actions for month two of FY 2020. 

Just look around, watch the television, read the newspaper, and what do you see?  Seems like very few reasons to be thankful.  School and workplace shootings, the political scene is as nasty as I ever remember in my 70 years on earth.  Climate change is threatening the future of our children, and the environmental controls have been set back 50 years as the oceans continue to rise,