With just eleven of the twenty-two working days left in July for the OGD to report approval actions, the number of full approval actions stands at twenty-nine and tentative approval actions sit at eight, for a total of thirty-seven so far this month.  These numbers are derived from the FDA’s All Approvals page here.

Now that we have passed the midpoint of 2019, it seemed like a good time to take a look at how the FDA and industry are doing at getting biotechnology product applications approved, and put this into historical perspective.

Between 1965 and the end of Federal Fiscal Year 2013, the FDA had approved approximately 86 therapeutic biopharmaceutical products (TBPs).  

FDA has announced the availability of another draft guidance for industry entitled, Harmonizing Compendial Standards with Drug Application Approval Using the USP Pending Monograph Process.  The draft guidance is part of FDA’s continued support of the Drug Competition Action Plan and to encourage the generic industry to take advantage of the USP’s Pending Monograph Process that was initiated in 2015.

It certainly seems that the world is getting smaller and this concept has been coming to the regulated industry for quite some time now.  As early as 1999, the European Commission has been working diligently with the EMA and other regulatory bodies throughout the world to form Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) related to inspections and to harmonize standards within the industry.