Surrogate endpoints have been used for accelerated approval (AA) since the early 1990s, playing a vital role in getting therapies for serious conditions to patients sooner. The AA pathway was first created in 1992 to accelerate the approval of drugs intended to treat “serious conditions that fill an unmet medical need.” In the intervening 30+…
The FDA has developed several mechanisms to speed drugs to market when a compelling medical need exists including Accelerated Approval (AA), Priority Review, Fast Track, and Breakthrough Therapy Designation. Accelerated Approval is an important regulatory pathway that provides patients with earlier access to treatments for serious medical conditions when there is an unmet medical need….
No matter how well you have prepared your New Drug Application (NDA) or Biologic License Agreement (BLA) submission for the FDA, questions posed regarding the development of your product will arise. These are presented in the form of Information Requests (IRs) and Discipline Review Letters (DRLs). The FDA Guidance to Industry from the Center for…
There’s a lot of buzz around the concept of decentralized clinical trials, and rightly so, given the lessons learned from our experience with clinical trials during the COVID-19 pandemic. Decentralized trials are executed through telemedicine and mobile or local healthcare providers. They rely on technology (or medical devices) and information sharing to execute a study…
Developing a novel pharmaceutical product from discovery to market launch can take up to 10 years and cost as much as $1 billion dollars1. The traditional 505(b)(1) approach to drug development involves a linear progression starting with nonclinical pharmacology, toxicology, and other PK studies, and typically culminates with large randomized phase 3 trials. This stepwise…
As Pfizer, Moderna, and other pharma companies prepare to seek emergency authorization for their SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, the FDA has laid out a roadmap designed to ensure appropriate scientific rigor and help engender public trust. That plan was the subject of a special meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) on October…
Authorship is a hot topic in the scientific and medical publishing world. Who qualifies as an author? Who is the senior author? What are the responsibilities of the corresponding author? Opinions vary across disciplines and cultures. Whereas medical publications generally follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE; http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf),1 academic publications…
As of July 1, 2018, manuscripts submitted to International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)-member journals must be accompanied by a data sharing statement. What is the new requirement, how did it evolve, and what does it mean for data sharing? In January 2016, the ICMJE proposed that authors of all clinical trial manuscripts published…
When utilized to its full potential, the Target Product Profile (TPP) is a dynamic, living document that ensures all stakeholders—clinical, regulatory, quality and manufacturing, commercial, market access, and medical affairs—are working from the same blueprint. Unfortunately, the TPP often has a bad rap within industry because many people think it is too rigid for today’s…
“Co-pay cards” (or “co-pay coupons”) are financial assistance programs from drug manufacturers (pharma) that drastically reduce the out-of-pocket (OOP) costs for someone who needs an expensive medication. These programs are controversial: Pharma and patients believe that these programs allow sick people to afford the medications they need. Healthcare payers (ie, insurance companies or their pharmacy…
