This morning, in reading an article from the Pink Sheet written by Sarah Karlin-Smith, I flashed on my blog post from September 24, 2020 (here) discussing the new warning on benzodiazepine products. In this post, I had expressed concern that the abuse-deterrent formulation (ADF) craze of opioid formulations might be creeping in on other products […]
In a pre-publication notice today, FDA announced the FY 2021 fee for the use of a Tropical Disease Priority Review Voucher, Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review Voucher, or a Material Threat Medical Countermeasure Priority Review Voucher. That fee is $1,360,879 and remember that is to be paid on top of the $2,875,842 applications user fee […]
The end of the FY saw a bump back up to the 80’s for number of total approvals with 73 “line item” full approval actions and 10 tentative approval actions. What the heck is a “line item” approval action, you may ask? Well, we noticed in September (or perhaps we just missed it in previous […]
The Association for Accessible Medicines released its 2020 Generic Drugs and Biosimilars Access and Savings in the U.S. Report (here) yesterday, outlining the savings that these products brought to American consumers in 2019. “In 2019, according to data provided by IQVIA, U.S. savings from generic drugs added up to $313 billion—including $96 billion and $48.5 […]
In a drug safety communication on September 23, 2020 titled FDA requiring Boxed Warning updated to improve safe use of benzodiazepine drug class (here), the FDA announced changes being made to the boxed warning on all benzodiazepine products. The communication describes the need for the change as follows: “[T]o address the serious risks of abuse, […]
The history of the issue of the ”intended use” regulations goes back to 2015, as explained in this 39-page pre-publication version of the Federal Register Notice (here), and it is quite an interesting read. The main issue surrounds the notion that, if a firm knows its product is being used for a use not in […]
The news is rife with stories about counterfeit drugs, illegal operating on-line pharmacies, on-line pharmacies dispensing sub- or super-potent medicines, some act as virtual opioid pill mills, but the FDA has launched a campaign to help consumers navigate the online pharmacy morass. Released this morning the FDA’s web page (here) asks in its opening line […]
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking final official action withdrawing the approval of two new drug applications for BELVIQ (lorcaserin hydrochloride (HCl)) tablets and BELVIQ XR (lorcaserin HCl) extended-release tablets which were originally approved by FDA on June 27, 2012 and July 15, 2016, respectively. This announcement was made on the Federal Register’s […]
The FDA has been more than busy in its efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Here is an update as of September 11, 2020 regarding some of the statistics the FDA has presented. The FDA has: Authorized 247 tests under emergency use authorizations (EUAs), of these: 197 are molecular tests 46 are antibody tests 4 […]
In an opinion piece in USA Today (here), eight career executives at the FDA, Patrizia Cavazzoni, Acting Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Peter Marks, Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Susan Mayne, Director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Judy McMeekin, Associate Commissioner for Regulatory […]
