This has been a long time coming! Ever since the first approval of isotretinoin (Accutane – by Hoffmann La Roche, Inc. on May 7, 1982), and the associated safety requirements associated with that product’s labeling, the requirements for the safe use of isotretinoin products have become stricter. This type of safety information and requirements for […]
Yesterday, the FDA issued the first revision of the Guidance titled Presenting Quantitative Efficacy and Risk Information in Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Promotional Labeling and Advertisements (here). This Guidance covers the following four topics: Providing quantitative efficacy or risk information for the control group, when applicable; Presenting probability information in terms of absolute frequencies, percentages, and relative […]
An FDA notice contained in the Federal Register (FR) notice prepublication pages today (here) has put the final kibosh on the use of ciprofloxacin 100mg tablets due to current evidence demonstrating that the increased resistance of Escherichia coli (E. coli) to the low strength of ciprofloxacin makes it no longer effective for treatment of acute […]
The bulk of microbiology attention in the drug manufacturing world is laser focused on sterile drug products and the myriad steps needed to aseptically manufacture them. That is certainly with good reason as those drug products carry the highest patient risk should there be microbial contamination. One aseptic manufacturing misstep and the consequences could be […]
In an article published in Fierce Pharma today (here), Kevin Dunleavy pointed to a congressional letter (here), penned by Congresswoman Lisa McClain, Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services, that questions the long lag time for the FDA and its advisory committee to come to the conclusion that phenylephrine, as an oral decongestant, does […]
Bring up the recently updated and finalized EU Annex 1 – Manufacture of Sterile Medicinal Drug Products (here) in polite pharmaceutical water cooler conversation and a frequent topic that comes up is the Contamination Control Strategy (CCS) language. Buzzwords abound for a “holistic”, “global”, or “wholesale” CCS to be incorporated into all elements of aseptic […]
I am sure that any of you that have listened to radio or watched TV have heard a prescription drug ad and have struggled with keeping up with the fast talking and not so slow walking people, scene, or scrolling of text on direct-to-consumer ads. FDA has been working to develop standards over the course […]
Sidley Austin LLP filed a petition (here) requesting that FDA not grant orphan drug exclusivity to a ready-to-use version oral solution of vigabatrin. There are currently two versions of vigabatrin already approved with a number of generics available. The original approved NDA products (tablet and power for reconstitution) were granted orphan drug exclusivity (ODE), the […]
The EU has continued its advancement of initiatives and intentions to combat the drug shortage problem. The latest communication is titled “Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Addressing medicine shortages in the EU” (here). This is a deep dive […]
Yesterday, the FDA issued a draft guidance titled “Communications From Firms to Health Care Providers Regarding Scientific Information on Unapproved Uses of Approved/Cleared Medical Products: Questions and Answers” (here). If you can get that out of your mouth without taking a breath, I think you must be a free diver. The issue of disseminating information […]
