Today the FDA issued the long awaited Guidance to Industry: ANDAs Stability of Drug Substances and Drug Products in draft answering questions the public submitted relative to the final ANDA stability guidance document issued September 25, 2012.
Ever since the meningitis outbreak associated with the products from the New England Compounding Center, the FDA and the States have been taking a closer look at this segment of the industry. So far, in 2013 alone, the FDA has issued 51 Safety Alerts for Human Medical Products, of which 17 (33%) related to sterile pharmacy compounded products and/or laboratories that tested those products for sterility and/or potency. In addition, FDA has taken 54 separate actions against compounding pharmacies in 2013 alone, with only 24 actions taken in the previous 5 years.
On August 20, 2013, FDA and the EMA (European Medicines Agency) published a document entitled, “EMA-FDA pilot program for parallel assessment of Quality-by-Design applications: Lessons learnt and Q&A resulting from the first parallel assessment.” The Q&A document provides information regarding agreements that were made between the agencies as a result of the first FDA-EMA parallel […]
Collecting information about mean and median approval times for abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) is very difficult, time consuming and frustrating. We looked at the 31 approvals in June 2013 to see how the Office of Generic Drugs (OGD) was doing.
Yesterday, the FDA released an update to its 2007 Questions and Answers document on Medical Foods. Interestingly, it is the new information in this document that has us scratching our heads about the implications of this revised draft document.
In a safety communication late yesterday, the FDA warned the public about the potential for acetaminophen to cause a rare, potentially fatal skin condition called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS), toxic epidermal necrosis (TENS) and acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis (AGEP). The Agency discovered this through evaluation of the literature and a search of its Adverse Events Database.
FDA announced the Fiscal Year 2014 User Fees to begin on October 1, 2013. This rise in fees was expected since the number of ANDA projected to be submitted in 2013 appears as if it may drop below the 1103 submitted in 2012. In addition, the number of facilities self-identifying was slightly lower than anticipated. Also remember that, in year one of GDUFA, there was $50 million of the $299 million permitted for 2013 associated with backlog fees to address the logjam of ANDAs in the backlog. That was a one- time fee which must now be made up by increases in the ongoing yearly fees.
In a Federal Register notice published today, the FDA outlined the new fiscal year Prescription Drug User Fees.
FDA published its final Guidance to Industry – Safety Labeling Changes – Implementation of Section 505(o)(4) of the FD&C Act on July 30, 2013. Section 505(o)(4) (enacted under the FDAAA in 2007) gave the FDA new authority to require NDA, BLA and ANDA applicants for which there is no corresponding NDA to make certain label changes if there is new information available relative to safety issues. That new safety information may impact or require a Boxed Warning, changes to the Contraindications, Adverse Event or Warnings sections of the labeling. It could also require a change to a REMS program or patient information sheet.
In an FDA Safety Alert issued today, the FDA warned of potentially serious liver failure that can result in need for liver transplant, or death and adrenal insufficiency that has been observed with Nizoral (ketoconazole) tablets. This pertains to both the brand and generic versions of the tablet form of the drug.
