Prescription Drug User Fee Act; Public Meeting, 56201-56205 [2011-23251]
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Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 176 / Monday, September 12, 2011 / Notices
Notice of public meeting;
request for comments.
Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 31, Rm. 1503,
Silver Spring, MD, 20993.
Submit electronic comments to https://
www.regulations.gov. Submit written
comments to the Division of Dockets
Management (HFA–305), Food and Drug
Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, rm.
1061, Rockville, MD 20852. All
comments should be identified with the
docket number found in brackets in the
heading of this document.
Transcripts of the meeting will be
available for review at the Division of
Dockets Management and on the
Internet at https://www.regulations.gov
approximately 30 days after the public
meeting (see section IV.C of this
document).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Sunanda Bahl, Food and Drug
Administration, Center for Drug
Evaluation and Research, 10903 New
Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 51, Rm. 1168,
Silver Spring, MD 20993, 301–796–
3584, fax: 301–847–8443,
PDUFAReauthorization@fda.hhs.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
The Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) is announcing a
public meeting to discuss proposed
recommendations for the
reauthorization of the Prescription Drug
User Fee Act (PDUFA), which
authorizes FDA to collect user fees and
use them for the process for the review
of human drug applications for fiscal
years (FYs) 2013 through 2017. The
legislative authority for PDUFA expires
in September 2012. At that time, new
legislation will be required for FDA to
collect prescription drug user fees for
future fiscal years. Following
discussions with the regulated industry
and periodic consultations with public
stakeholders, the Federal Food, Drug,
and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) directs
FDA to publish the recommendations
for the reauthorized program in the
Federal Register, hold a meeting at
which the public may present its views
on such recommendations, and provide
for a period of 30 days for the public to
provide written comments on such
recommendations. FDA will then
consider such public views and
comments and revise such
recommendations as necessary.
DATES: The public meeting will be held
on October 24, 2011, from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m. Registration to attend the meeting
must be received by October 10, 2011.
See section IV.B of this document for
information on how to register for the
meeting. Submit either electronic or
written comments by October 24, 2011.
ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at
FDA’s White Oak Campus, 10903 New
I. Introduction
FDA is announcing a public meeting
to discuss proposed recommendations
for the reauthorization of the
Prescription Drug User Fee Act
(PDUFA), which authorizes FDA to
collect user fees and use them for the
process of the review of human drug
applications for FYs 2013 through 2017.
Without new legislation, FDA will no
longer be able to collect user fees for
future fiscal years to fund the human
drug review process. Section 736B(d)(4)
(21 U.S.C. 379h–2(d)(4)) of the FD&C
Act requires that after FDA holds
negotiations with regulated industry
and periodic consultations with
stakeholders, we do the following: (1)
Present recommendations to
congressional committees, (2) publish
recommendations in the Federal
Register, (3) provide a period of 30 days
for the public to provide written
comments on the recommendations, (4)
hold a meeting at which the public may
present its views, and (5) after
consideration of public views and
comments, revise the recommendations
as necessary.
This notice, the 30-day comment
period, and the public meeting will
satisfy some of these requirements. After
the public meeting, we will revise the
recommendations as necessary and
present our proposed recommendations
to the congressional committees.
The purpose of the meeting is to hear
the public’s views on the proposed
recommendations for the reauthorized
program (PDUFA V). The following
public conduct during advisory
committee meetings.
Notice of this meeting is given under
the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5
U.S.C. app. 2).
Dated: September 6, 2011.
Jill Hartzler Warner,
Acting Associate Commissioner for Special
Medical Programs.
[FR Doc. 2011–23130 Filed 9–9–11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
Food and Drug Administration
[Docket No. FDA–2010–N–0128]
Prescription Drug User Fee Act; Public
Meeting
AGENCY:
Food and Drug Administration,
HHS.
ACTION:
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SUMMARY:
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information is provided to help
potential meeting participants better
understand the history and evolution of
the PDUFA program and the current
status of the proposed PDUFA V
recommendations.
II. The PDUFA Program
A. What is PDUFA? What does it do?
FDA considers the timely review of
the safety and effectiveness of new drug
applications (NDAs) and biologics
license applications (BLAs) to be central
to the Agency’s mission to protect and
promote the public health. Prior to
enactment of PDUFA in 1992, FDA’s
drug review process was not very
predictable and was relatively slow
compared to other countries. As a result
of concerns expressed by both industry
and patients, Congress enacted PDUFA,
which provided the added funds
through user fees that enabled FDA to
hire additional reviewers and support
staff and upgrade its information
technology systems. At the same time,
FDA committed to complete reviews in
a predictable timeframe. These changes
revolutionized the drug approval
process in the United States and
enabled FDA to speed the application
review process for new drugs and
biologics without compromising the
Agency’s high standards for
demonstration of safety, efficacy, and
quality of new drugs prior to approval.
B. PDUFA Achievements
PDUFA has produced significant
benefits for public health, providing
patients faster access to over 1,500 new
drugs and biologics since enactment in
1992, including treatments for cancer,
infectious diseases, neurological and
psychiatric disorders, and
cardiovascular diseases. The United
States now leads the world in the first
introduction of new active drug
substances.1 Since PDUFA was enacted,
the median approval time of original
NDAs and BLAs has been reduced by
about 50 percent for standard
applications (25.6 months in FY 1992
versus 13 months in FY 2009) and 55
percent for priority applications (19.9
months in FY 1992 versus 9 months in
2009).
Increased resources provided by user
fees have also enabled FDA to provide
a large body of technical guidance to
industry that has clarified the drug
development pathway for many
diseases. These resources have also
enhanced FDA’s ability to meet with
companies during drug development to
1 Scrip NCE Review/Scrip Yearbook/Scrip
Magazine (1982–2005), PharmaProjects R&D
Annual Review (2006–2009).
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provide critical advice on specific
development programs. In the past 5
years alone, FDA has held over 7,000
meetings within a short time after a
sponsor’s request. Innovations in drug
development are being advanced by
many new companies as well as more
established ones, and new sponsors may
need, and often seek, more regulatory
guidance during development. In FY
2009, more than half of the meetings
FDA held with companies at the early
investigational stage and midway
through the clinical trial process were
with companies that had no approved
product on the U.S. market.
1. Application Review
PDUFA provides FDA with a source
of stable, consistent funding that has
made possible our efforts to focus on
promoting innovative therapies and
help bring to market critical products
for patients. As part of the PDUFA
agreement, FDA agrees to certain review
performance goals, such as reviewing
and acting on standard applications
within 10 months and on priority
applications within 6 months. Priority
application reviews are for drugs that
generally represent advances in public
health, often targeted at severe illnesses
where few or no therapeutic options
exist.
PDUFA funds help support the use of
existing mechanisms in place to
expedite the approval of certain
promising investigational drugs and also
to make them available to the very ill as
early in the development process as
possible, without unduly jeopardizing
the patients’ safety.
One such program is the accelerated
approval process, instituted by FDA in
1992. Accelerated approval allows
earlier approval of drugs that treat
serious diseases and that fill an unmet
medical need. One pathway for
accelerated approval is based on a
surrogate endpoint—a marker used as
substitute measurement to represent a
clinically meaningful outcome, such as
survival or symptom improvement—
that is reasonably likely to predict
clinical benefit; the other pathway bases
approval on a clinical endpoint other
than survival or irreversible morbidity.
This program allows drugs to be
approved before measures of
effectiveness that would normally be
required for approval are available. In
these cases, approval is given on the
condition that postmarketing clinical
trials verify the anticipated clinical
benefit. Over 100 critical products,
including most HIV therapies and many
cancer treatments, have been approved
under accelerated approval since the
program was established.
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2. Drug Safety
In parallel with improvements in the
drug review process, PDUFA funds have
enabled FDA to increase its focus on
drug safety, including implementing the
Food and Drug Administration
Amendments Act of 2007 (FDAAA). In
FDAAA, Congress authorized additional
user fees totaling $225 million for the 5
years of PDUFA IV reauthorization to
enhance drug safety activities. FDAAA
also provided FDA with important
postmarket safety authorities. Under
FDAAA, FDA was given the authority to
require postmarketing studies and
clinical trials to address important drug
safety questions. Between the enactment
of FDAAA on September 27, 2007, and
June 1, 2011, FDA has required
applicants to conduct approximately
375 postmarketing studies or trials to
address important drug safety questions
that could not be addressed before the
drug was approved. FDAAA also gave
FDA the authority to require safety
labeling changes based on new safety
information identified after a drug is on
the market. FDA has used its new
authority to require applicants to place
important new safety information onto
their drug labels quickly, in some cases
using this authority to require changes
to the labeling of all members of a class
of drugs. FDAAA also provided FDA
with authority to manage risks
associated with marketed drug products
through required risk evaluation and
mitigation strategies (REMS). FDA has
been using this new authority
judiciously to ensure that drugs that
could not otherwise be approved
because the risks without a REMS
would outweigh the benefits, are
available to patients.
FDA has implemented other
important drug safety initiatives under
FDAAA including, for example,
initiating systematic reviews of the
safety of marketed drugs 18 months after
approval; conducting regular screening
of the adverse event reporting system
database and posting quarterly reports
of new safety information or potential
signals of serious risks identified from
that screening; and developing an active
post-market drug safety surveillance
capability under the ‘‘Sentinel’’
initiative (https://www.fda.gov/Safety/
FDAsSentinelInitiative/
ucm2007250.htm).
III. Proposed PDUFA V
Recommendations
In preparing the proposed
recommendations to Congress for
PDUFA reauthorization, we have
conducted discussions with the
regulated industry, and we have
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consulted with stakeholders as required
by the law. We began the PDUFA
reauthorization process with a public
meeting held on April 12, 2010 (75 FR
12555, March 16, 2010). The meeting
included presentations by FDA and a
series of panels representing different
stakeholder groups, including patient
advocates, consumer groups, regulated
industry, health professionals, and
academic researchers. The stakeholders
were asked to respond to the following
questions:
1. What is your assessment of the
overall performance of the PDUFA IV
program thus far?
2. What aspects of PDUFA should be
retained, changed, or discontinued to
further strengthen and improve the
program?
Following the April 2010 public
meeting, FDA conducted negotiations
with regulated industry and continued
monthly consultations with public
stakeholders from July 2010 through
May 2011. As directed by Congress,
FDA posted minutes of these
discussions on its Web site at https://
www.fda.gov/ForIndustry/UserFees/
PrescriptionDrugUserFee/
ucm117890.htm. The proposed
enhancements for PDUFA V address
many of the top priorities identified by
public stakeholders, the top concerns
identified by regulated industry, and the
most important challenges identified
within FDA. These include a new
review program for new molecular
entity NDAs and original BLAs,
proposals to enhance regulatory science
and expedite drug development,
enhanced benefit-risk assessment,
modernization of FDA’s drug safety
system, requirements for electronic
submissions with standardized
application data, a technical correction
related to discontinued products, and
modifications to the PDUFA inflation
adjuster with continued evaluation of
the workload adjuster. The full
descriptions of these proposed
enhancements can be found in the draft
PDUFA V commitment letter (draft
commitment letter) posted on FDA’s
Web site at https://www.fda.gov/
ForIndustry/UserFees/
PrescriptionDrugUserFee/
ucm149212.htm. Each enhancement is
briefly described below with reference
to the section of the draft commitment
letter where more detailed information
can be found.
A. A Review Program for New Drug
Applications (NDA), New Molecular
Entities (NME), and Original Biologics
License Applications (BLA)
FDA’s existing review performance
goals for priority and standard
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applications, 6 and 10 months
respectively, were established in 1997.
Since that time, additional requirements
in the drug review process have made
those goals increasingly challenging to
meet, particularly for more complex
applications like NME NDAs and
original BLAs. FDA also recognizes that
increasing communication between the
Agency and sponsors or applicants
during the application review has the
potential to increase efficiency in the
review process. To address the desire
for increased communication and
efficiency, FDA proposes a new review
program for NME NDAs and original
BLAs in PDUFA V that will include
presubmission meetings, mid-cycle
communications, and late-cycle
meetings between FDA and sponsors for
these applications. FDA’s review clock
will begin after the 60-day
administrative filing review period to
accommodate this increased interaction
during regulatory review. The impact of
these modifications on the efficiency of
drug review for this subset of
applications would be assessed during
PDUFA V.
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B. Enhancing Regulatory Science and
Expediting Drug Development
The following five enhancements
focus on enhancing regulatory science
and expediting drug development.
Regulatory science is the science of
developing and applying new tools,
standards, and approaches to assess the
safety, effectiveness, quality, and
performance of FDA-regulated products.
The details of these enhancements can
be found in section IX of the draft
commitment letter.
1. Promoting Innovation Through
Enhanced Communication Between
FDA and Sponsors During Drug
Development
FDA recognizes that timely interactive
communication with sponsors can help
foster efficient and effective drug
development. In some cases, a sponsor’s
questions may be complex enough to
require a formal meeting with FDA, but
in other instances, a question may be
relatively straightforward such that a
response can be provided more quickly.
However, our review staff’s workload
and other competing public health
priorities can make it challenging to
develop an Agency response to matters
outside of the formal meeting process.
This enhancement involves a
dedicated drug development
communication and training staff,
focused on improving communication
between FDA and sponsors during
development. This staff will be
responsible for identifying best practices
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for communication between the Agency
and sponsors, training review staff, and
disseminating best practices through
published guidance.
2. Methods for Meta-Analysis
A meta-analysis typically attempts to
combine the data or findings from
multiple completed studies to explore
drug benefits and risks and, in some
cases, uncover what might be a potential
safety signal in a premarket or
postmarket context. However, there is
no consensus on best practices in
conducting a meta-analysis. With the
growing availability of clinical trial
data, an increasing number of metaanalyses are being conducted based on
varying sets of data and assumptions. If
such studies conducted outside FDA
find a potential safety signal, FDA will
work to try to confirm—or correct—the
information about a potential harm that
will create uncertainty for patients and
health professionals. To do this, FDA
must work quickly to conduct its own
meta-analyses of publicly available data
and the raw clinical trial data submitted
by drug sponsors that would typically
not be available to outside researchers.
This is resource-intensive work that
often exceeds the Agency’s current
scientific and computational capacity,
causing delays in FDA findings that
prolong public uncertainty.
This proposed recommendation
includes the development of a dedicated
staff to evaluate best practices and
limitations in meta-analysis methods.
Through a rigorous public comment
process, FDA will develop guidance on
best practices and the Agency’s
approach to meta-analysis in regulatory
review and decision-making.
3. Biomarkers and Pharmacogenomics
Pharmacogenomics and the
application of qualified biomarkers have
the potential to decrease drug
development time by helping to
demonstrate benefits, to recognize
unmet medical needs, and to identify
patients who are predisposed to adverse
events. FDA provides regulatory advice
on the use of biomarkers to facilitate the
assessment of human safety in early
phase clinical studies to support claims
of efficacy and to establish the optimal
dose selection for pivotal efficacy
studies. This is an area of new science
where the Agency has seen a marked
increase in sponsor submissions to FDA.
In the 2008 to 2010 period, the Agency
experienced nearly a four-fold increase
in this type of review work.
In PDUFA V, FDA will augment the
Agency’s clinical, clinical
pharmacology, and statistical capacity
to adequately address submissions that
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propose to utilize biomarkers or
pharmacogenomic markers. The Agency
will also hold a public meeting to
discuss potential strategies to facilitate
scientific exchanges on biomarker issues
between FDA and drug manufacturers.
4. Use of Patient-Reported Outcomes
(PRO)
Assessments of study endpoints
known as patient-reported outcomes
(PROs) are increasingly an important
part of successful drug development.
PROs measure treatment benefit or risk
in medical product clinical trials from
the patients’ point of view. PROs are
critical in understanding the drug
benefits and harm from the patients’
perspective. However, PROs require
rigorous evaluation and statistical
design and analysis to ensure reliability
to support claims of clinical benefit.
Early consultation between FDA and
drug sponsors can ensure that endpoints
are well-defined and reliable. However,
the Agency does not have the capacity
to meet the current demand from
industry.
This initiative will improve FDA’s
clinical and statistical capacity to
address submissions involving PROs
and other endpoint assessment tools,
including providing consultation to
sponsors during the early stages of drug
development. In addition, FDA will
convene a public meeting to discuss
standards for PRO qualification, new
theories in endpoint measurement, and
the implications for multinational trials.
5. Development of Drugs for Rare
Diseases
FDA’s oversight of rare disease drug
development is complex and resource
intensive. Rare diseases are a highly
diverse collection of disorders, their
natural histories are often not welldescribed, only small population sizes
are often available for study, and the
diseases do not usually have welldefined outcome measures. This makes
the design, execution, and interpretation
of clinical trials for rare diseases
difficult and time consuming, requiring
frequent interaction between FDA and
drug sponsors. If recent trends in
orphan designations are any indication,
FDA can expect an increase in
investigational activity and marketing
applications for drug products for rare
diseases in the future.
This PDUFA V enhancement includes
FDA facilitation of rare disease drug
development by issuing relevant
guidance, increasing the Agency’s
outreach efforts to the rare disease
patient community, and providing
specialized training in rare disease drug
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development for sponsors and FDA
staff.
C. Enhancing Benefit-Risk Assessment
FDA has been exploring how to
develop an enhanced structured
approach to benefit-risk assessments
that accurately and concisely describes
the benefit and risk considerations in
the Agency’s drug regulatory decisionmaking. Part of FDA’s decision-making
lies in thinking about the context of the
decision, including gaining a strong
understanding of the condition treated
and the nature and extent of the unmet
medical need. Patients who live with a
disease have a direct stake in the
outcome of the drug review process. The
FDA drug review process could benefit
from a more systematic and expansive
approach to obtaining the patient
perspective on disease severity and the
potential gaps or limitations in available
treatments in a therapeutic area.
During PDUFA V, FDA will expand
its use of a benefit-risk framework in the
drug review process, including holding
public workshops to discuss the
application of frameworks for
considering benefits and risks that are
most appropriate for the regulatory
setting. FDA will also conduct a series
of public meetings with the relevant
patient advocacy communities to review
the medical products available for use
in specific therapeutic areas. The
therapeutic areas to be discussed will be
chosen through a public process. This
enhancement is discussed in section X
of the draft commitment letter.
development of multiple individual
programs has the potential to create
burdens on the health care system and,
in some cases, could limit appropriate
patient access to important therapies.
FDA will initiate a public process in
PDUFA V to explore strategies and
initiate projects to standardize REMS
programs with the goal of reducing
burden on practitioners, patients, and
others in the health care setting. In
addition, FDA will conduct public
workshops and develop guidance on
methods for assessing the effectiveness
of REMS and the impact on patient
access and burden on the health care
system.
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D. Enhancement and Modernization of
the FDA Drug Safety System
The drug safety enhancements in
PDUFA V focus on FDA’s use of REMS
and the Sentinel Initiative. Additional
information on these proposals is found
in section XI of the draft commitment
letter.
2. Using the Sentinel Initiative To
Evaluate Drug Safety Issues
FDA’s Sentinel Initiative is a longterm program designed to build and
implement a national electronic system
for monitoring the safety of FDAapproved medical products. FDAAA
required FDA to collaborate with
Federal, academic, and private entities
to develop methods to obtain access to
disparate data sources and validated
means to link and analyze safety data to
monitor the safety of drugs after they
reach the market, an activity also known
as ‘‘active postmarket drug safety
surveillance.’’ FDA will conduct a series
of activities during PDUFA V to
determine the feasibility of using
Sentinel to evaluate drug safety issues
that may require regulatory action (e.g.,
labeling changes, post-marketing
requirements, or postmarketing
commitments). This may shorten the
time it takes to better understand new
or emerging drug safety issues. By
leveraging public and private health
care data sources to quickly evaluate
drug safety issues; this proposal may
reduce the Agency’s reliance on
required postmarketing studies and
clinical trials.
1. Standardizing REMS
FDAAA gave FDA authority to require
a REMS when FDA finds that a REMS
is necessary to ensure that the benefits
of a drug outweigh its risks. Some REMS
are more restrictive types of risk
management programs that include
elements to assure safe use (ETASU).
These programs can require such tools
as prescriber training or certification,
pharmacy training or certification,
dispensing only in certain health care
settings, documentation of safe use
conditions, patient monitoring, and
patient registries. ETASU REMS can be
challenging to implement and evaluate,
involving cooperation of all segments of
the health care system. Our experience
with REMS to date suggests that the
E. Required Electronic Submissions and
Standardization of Electronic
Application Data
The predictability of the FDA review
process relies heavily on the quality of
sponsor and applicant submissions. The
Agency currently receives submissions
of original applications and
supplements in formats ranging from
paper-only to electronic-only, as well as
hybrids of the two media. The
variability and unpredictability of
submitted formats and clinical data
layout present major obstacles to
conducting a timely, efficient, and
rigorous review within current PDUFA
goal time frames. A lack of standardized
data also limits FDA’s ability to
transition to more standardized
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approaches to benefit-risk assessment
and impedes conduct of safety analyses
that inform FDA decisions related to
REMS and other postmarketing
requirements. The PDUFA V
enhancements in this area include a
phased-in requirement for standardized,
fully electronic submissions for all
marketing and investigational
applications. Through partnership with
open standards development
organizations, the Agency will also
conduct a public process to develop
standardized terminology for clinical
and nonclinical data submitted in
marketing and investigational
applications. More information on this
initiative can be found in section XII of
the draft commitment letter.
F. Technical Change to Section
736(a)(3)(B) of the FD&C Act Related to
Discontinued Products
FDA proposes to amend section
736(a)(3)(B) of the FD&C Act, which
provides for an exception in assessing a
product fee if the same product is
approved as an NDA or ANDA. This
amendment will clarify FDA’s longstanding policy to use the active portion
of the Prescription Drug Product List in
the ‘‘Approved Drug Products With
Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations’’
(generally know as the ‘‘Orange Book’’)
to identify fee-eligible prescription drug
products. FDA will assess a product fee
on a prescription drug product when
there are no other products on the
Prescription Drug Product List that are
the same as that product.
G. PDUFA V Enhancements for a
Modified Inflation Adjuster and
Additional Evaluations of the Workload
Adjuster
In calculating user fees for each new
fiscal year, FDA adjusts the base
revenue amount by inflation and
workload as specified in the statute.
PDUFA V financial enhancements
include a modification to the inflation
adjuster to more accurately account for
changes in FDA’s costs related to
payroll compensation and benefits as
well as changes in non-payroll costs
through use of the Consumer Price
Index (CPI). This new weighted
composite inflation adjuster will help
ensure that increases in fees more
closely mirror the inflationary pressures
that have an impact on FDA’s costs.
FDA will also continue evaluating the
workload adjuster that was developed
during the PDUFA IV negotiations to
ensure that it continues to adequately
capture changes in FDA’s workload
during PDUFA V. These evaluations
will include options to discontinue,
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modify, or retain any element of the
workload adjuster.
H. Impact of PDUFA V Enhancements
on User Fee Revenue
Implementing the proposed
enhancements discussed in the previous
sections of this document will add $40.4
million to the PDUFA user fee revenue
amount in FY 2012. The fee revenue
amount for FY 2012 is $652,709,000 as
published by notice in the Federal
Register of August 1, 2011 (76 FR
45831). This amount includes the
additional user fee revenues for drug
safety in FY 2012 totaling $65 million
as specified in the statute. The
additional user fee revenue for the
PDUFA V enhancements translates to a
6-percent increase, and a total base of
$693.1 million in FY 2013. The
following table summarizes the FY 2013
baseline and added resources to support
the new PDUFA V enhancements:
Financial baseline
FY 2012 Baseline 1 .............
Cumulative Inflation Adjustment for FY 2012 ............
Cumulative Workload Adjustment for FY 2012 ......
Fee Revenue Amount for
FY 2012 2 ........................
Dollars
$499,412,000
104,277,000
49,020,000
652,709,000
PDUFA V Enhancements
Increased Staff Capacity
(129 FTE) ........................
Other Direct Costs ..............
Total Statutory Revenue
Amount for FY 2013 3 .....
36,120,000
4,270,000
693,099,000
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1 In determining the fee revenue amount
for FY 2012, sections 736(b)(4)(A) and
736(b)(4)(B) of the FD&C Act direct the
Secretary of Health and Human Services
(Secretary) to substitute $392,783,000 plus
$65,000,000 (for FY 2012) for the amount in
paragraph (1)(A). Furthermore, paragraph
(1)(B) directs the Secretary to add the amount
of the modified workload adjustment for FY
2007 to the amount in paragraph (1)(A) to
determine the total revenue amount in FY
2012. This total is $499,412,000.
2 As published in the Federal Register of
August 1, 2011 (76 FR 45831).
3 Of this amount, $652,709,000 will be
further adjusted according to the new
statutory provisions to account for inflation
and workload adjustments in determining
fees for FY 2013. These adjustments must be
captured in calculations of user fee revenue
for FYs 2014–2017.
IV. What information should you know
about the meeting?
A. When and where will the meeting
occur? What format will FDA use?
We will convene a public meeting to
hear the public’s views on the proposed
recommendations for reauthorization of
PDUFA. We will conduct the meeting
VerDate Mar<15>2010
18:18 Sep 09, 2011
Jkt 223001
on October 24, 2011, at FDA’s White
Oak Campus (see ADDRESSES). The
meeting will include a presentation by
FDA and a series of panels representing
different stakeholder groups identified
in the statute (such as patient advocacy
groups, consumer advocacy groups,
health professionals, and regulated
industry). We will also provide an
opportunity for other organizations and
individuals to make presentations at the
meeting or to submit written comments
to the docket before the meeting.
B. How do you register for the meeting
or submit comments?
If you wish to attend this meeting,
please register by e-mail at:
PDUFAReauthorization@fda.hhs.gov by
October 10, 2011. Your e-mail should
contain complete contact information
for each attendee, including: Name,
title, affiliation, address, e-mail address,
and phone number. Registration is free
and will be on a first-come, first-served
basis, with the exception below. Early
registration is recommended because
seating is limited. FDA may limit the
number of participants from each
organization based on space limitations.
Registrants will receive confirmation
once they have been accepted. On-site
registration on the day of the meeting
will be based on space availability. We
will try to accommodate all persons
who wish to make a presentation. If you
need special accommodations because
of disability, please contact Sunanda
Bahl (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT) at least 7 days before the
meeting.
In addition, interested persons may
submit to the Division of Dockets
Management (see ADDRESSES) either
electronic or written comments
regarding this document. It is only
necessary to send one set of comments.
It is no longer necessary to send two
copies of mailed comments. Identify
comments with the docket number
found in brackets in the heading of this
document. Received comments may be
seen in the Division of Dockets
Management between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.,
Monday through Friday. To ensure
consideration, all comments must be
received by October 31, 2011.
C. Will meeting transcripts be available?
Please be advised that as soon as a
transcript is available, it will be
accessible at https://www.regulations.gov
and https://www.fda.gov. It may be
viewed at the Division of Dockets
Management (see ADDRESSES). A
transcript will also be made available in
either hard copy or on CD–ROM, after
submission of a Freedom of Information
request. Written requests are to be sent
to Division of Freedom of Information
PO 00000
Frm 00065
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
56205
(ELEM–1029), Food and Drug
Administration, 12420 Parklawn Dr.,
Element Bldg., Rockville, MD 20857.
Dated: September 7, 2011.
Leslie Kux,
Acting Assistant Commissioner for Policy.
[FR Doc. 2011–23251 Filed 9–9–11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
Food and Drug Administration
[Docket No. FDA–2011–N–0002]
Request for Notification From Industry
Organizations Interested in
Participating in the Selection Process
for Nonvoting Industry
Representatives and Request for
Nominations for Nonvoting Industry
Representatives on the Tobacco
Products Scientific Advisory
Committee
AGENCY:
Food and Drug Administration,
HHS.
ACTION:
Notice.
The Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) is requesting that
industry organizations interested in
participating in the selection of
nonvoting industry representatives to
serve on its Tobacco Products Scientific
Advisory Committee, notify FDA in
writing. FDA is also requesting
nominations for nonvoting industry
representatives to serve on the Tobacco
Products Scientific Advisory
Committee. A nominee may either be
self-nominated or nominated by an
organization to serve as a nonvoting
industry representative. Nominations
will be accepted for upcoming vacancies
effective with this notice.
DATES: Send letters stating interest in
participating in the selection process to
FDA by October 12, 2011 (see sections
I and II of this document for details).
Concurrently, nomination material for
prospective candidates should be sent to
FDA by October 12, 2011.
ADDRESSES: All letters of interest and
nominations should be submitted in
writing to TPSAC@fda.hhs.gov, or by
mail to Caryn Cohen, Center for Tobacco
Products, Food and Drug
Administration, 9200 Corporate Blvd.,
Rockville, MD 20850.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Caryn Cohen, Center for Tobacco
Products, Food and Drug
Administration, 9200 Corporate Blvd.,
Rockville, MD 20850, 1–877–287–1373
(choose Option 4), FAX: 240–276–3761,
e-mail: TPSAC@fda.hhs.gov.
SUMMARY:
E:\FR\FM\12SEN1.SGM
12SEN1
Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 176 (Monday, September 12, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56201-56205]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-23251]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Food and Drug Administration
[Docket No. FDA-2010-N-0128]
Prescription Drug User Fee Act; Public Meeting
AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS.
ACTION: Notice of public meeting; request for comments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing a public
meeting to discuss proposed recommendations for the reauthorization of
the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), which authorizes FDA to
collect user fees and use them for the process for the review of human
drug applications for fiscal years (FYs) 2013 through 2017. The
legislative authority for PDUFA expires in September 2012. At that
time, new legislation will be required for FDA to collect prescription
drug user fees for future fiscal years. Following discussions with the
regulated industry and periodic consultations with public stakeholders,
the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) directs FDA to
publish the recommendations for the reauthorized program in the Federal
Register, hold a meeting at which the public may present its views on
such recommendations, and provide for a period of 30 days for the
public to provide written comments on such recommendations. FDA will
then consider such public views and comments and revise such
recommendations as necessary.
DATES: The public meeting will be held on October 24, 2011, from 9 a.m.
to 5 p.m. Registration to attend the meeting must be received by
October 10, 2011. See section IV.B of this document for information on
how to register for the meeting. Submit either electronic or written
comments by October 24, 2011.
ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at FDA's White Oak Campus, 10903
New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 31, Rm. 1503, Silver Spring, MD, 20993.
Submit electronic comments to https://www.regulations.gov. Submit
written comments to the Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305), Food
and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, rm. 1061, Rockville, MD
20852. All comments should be identified with the docket number found
in brackets in the heading of this document.
Transcripts of the meeting will be available for review at the
Division of Dockets Management and on the Internet at https://www.regulations.gov approximately 30 days after the public meeting (see
section IV.C of this document).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sunanda Bahl, Food and Drug
Administration, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, 10903 New
Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 51, Rm. 1168, Silver Spring, MD 20993, 301-796-
3584, fax: 301-847-8443, PDUFAReauthorization@fda.hhs.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
FDA is announcing a public meeting to discuss proposed
recommendations for the reauthorization of the Prescription Drug User
Fee Act (PDUFA), which authorizes FDA to collect user fees and use them
for the process of the review of human drug applications for FYs 2013
through 2017. Without new legislation, FDA will no longer be able to
collect user fees for future fiscal years to fund the human drug review
process. Section 736B(d)(4) (21 U.S.C. 379h-2(d)(4)) of the FD&C Act
requires that after FDA holds negotiations with regulated industry and
periodic consultations with stakeholders, we do the following: (1)
Present recommendations to congressional committees, (2) publish
recommendations in the Federal Register, (3) provide a period of 30
days for the public to provide written comments on the recommendations,
(4) hold a meeting at which the public may present its views, and (5)
after consideration of public views and comments, revise the
recommendations as necessary.
This notice, the 30-day comment period, and the public meeting will
satisfy some of these requirements. After the public meeting, we will
revise the recommendations as necessary and present our proposed
recommendations to the congressional committees.
The purpose of the meeting is to hear the public's views on the
proposed recommendations for the reauthorized program (PDUFA V). The
following information is provided to help potential meeting
participants better understand the history and evolution of the PDUFA
program and the current status of the proposed PDUFA V recommendations.
II. The PDUFA Program
A. What is PDUFA? What does it do?
FDA considers the timely review of the safety and effectiveness of
new drug applications (NDAs) and biologics license applications (BLAs)
to be central to the Agency's mission to protect and promote the public
health. Prior to enactment of PDUFA in 1992, FDA's drug review process
was not very predictable and was relatively slow compared to other
countries. As a result of concerns expressed by both industry and
patients, Congress enacted PDUFA, which provided the added funds
through user fees that enabled FDA to hire additional reviewers and
support staff and upgrade its information technology systems. At the
same time, FDA committed to complete reviews in a predictable
timeframe. These changes revolutionized the drug approval process in
the United States and enabled FDA to speed the application review
process for new drugs and biologics without compromising the Agency's
high standards for demonstration of safety, efficacy, and quality of
new drugs prior to approval.
B. PDUFA Achievements
PDUFA has produced significant benefits for public health,
providing patients faster access to over 1,500 new drugs and biologics
since enactment in 1992, including treatments for cancer, infectious
diseases, neurological and psychiatric disorders, and cardiovascular
diseases. The United States now leads the world in the first
introduction of new active drug substances.\1\ Since PDUFA was enacted,
the median approval time of original NDAs and BLAs has been reduced by
about 50 percent for standard applications (25.6 months in FY 1992
versus 13 months in FY 2009) and 55 percent for priority applications
(19.9 months in FY 1992 versus 9 months in 2009).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Scrip NCE Review/Scrip Yearbook/Scrip Magazine (1982-2005),
PharmaProjects R&D Annual Review (2006-2009).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Increased resources provided by user fees have also enabled FDA to
provide a large body of technical guidance to industry that has
clarified the drug development pathway for many diseases. These
resources have also enhanced FDA's ability to meet with companies
during drug development to
[[Page 56202]]
provide critical advice on specific development programs. In the past 5
years alone, FDA has held over 7,000 meetings within a short time after
a sponsor's request. Innovations in drug development are being advanced
by many new companies as well as more established ones, and new
sponsors may need, and often seek, more regulatory guidance during
development. In FY 2009, more than half of the meetings FDA held with
companies at the early investigational stage and midway through the
clinical trial process were with companies that had no approved product
on the U.S. market.
1. Application Review
PDUFA provides FDA with a source of stable, consistent funding that
has made possible our efforts to focus on promoting innovative
therapies and help bring to market critical products for patients. As
part of the PDUFA agreement, FDA agrees to certain review performance
goals, such as reviewing and acting on standard applications within 10
months and on priority applications within 6 months. Priority
application reviews are for drugs that generally represent advances in
public health, often targeted at severe illnesses where few or no
therapeutic options exist.
PDUFA funds help support the use of existing mechanisms in place to
expedite the approval of certain promising investigational drugs and
also to make them available to the very ill as early in the development
process as possible, without unduly jeopardizing the patients' safety.
One such program is the accelerated approval process, instituted by
FDA in 1992. Accelerated approval allows earlier approval of drugs that
treat serious diseases and that fill an unmet medical need. One pathway
for accelerated approval is based on a surrogate endpoint--a marker
used as substitute measurement to represent a clinically meaningful
outcome, such as survival or symptom improvement--that is reasonably
likely to predict clinical benefit; the other pathway bases approval on
a clinical endpoint other than survival or irreversible morbidity. This
program allows drugs to be approved before measures of effectiveness
that would normally be required for approval are available. In these
cases, approval is given on the condition that postmarketing clinical
trials verify the anticipated clinical benefit. Over 100 critical
products, including most HIV therapies and many cancer treatments, have
been approved under accelerated approval since the program was
established.
2. Drug Safety
In parallel with improvements in the drug review process, PDUFA
funds have enabled FDA to increase its focus on drug safety, including
implementing the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007
(FDAAA). In FDAAA, Congress authorized additional user fees totaling
$225 million for the 5 years of PDUFA IV reauthorization to enhance
drug safety activities. FDAAA also provided FDA with important
postmarket safety authorities. Under FDAAA, FDA was given the authority
to require postmarketing studies and clinical trials to address
important drug safety questions. Between the enactment of FDAAA on
September 27, 2007, and June 1, 2011, FDA has required applicants to
conduct approximately 375 postmarketing studies or trials to address
important drug safety questions that could not be addressed before the
drug was approved. FDAAA also gave FDA the authority to require safety
labeling changes based on new safety information identified after a
drug is on the market. FDA has used its new authority to require
applicants to place important new safety information onto their drug
labels quickly, in some cases using this authority to require changes
to the labeling of all members of a class of drugs. FDAAA also provided
FDA with authority to manage risks associated with marketed drug
products through required risk evaluation and mitigation strategies
(REMS). FDA has been using this new authority judiciously to ensure
that drugs that could not otherwise be approved because the risks
without a REMS would outweigh the benefits, are available to patients.
FDA has implemented other important drug safety initiatives under
FDAAA including, for example, initiating systematic reviews of the
safety of marketed drugs 18 months after approval; conducting regular
screening of the adverse event reporting system database and posting
quarterly reports of new safety information or potential signals of
serious risks identified from that screening; and developing an active
post-market drug safety surveillance capability under the ``Sentinel''
initiative (https://www.fda.gov/Safety/FDAsSentinelInitiative/ucm2007250.htm).
III. Proposed PDUFA V Recommendations
In preparing the proposed recommendations to Congress for PDUFA
reauthorization, we have conducted discussions with the regulated
industry, and we have consulted with stakeholders as required by the
law. We began the PDUFA reauthorization process with a public meeting
held on April 12, 2010 (75 FR 12555, March 16, 2010). The meeting
included presentations by FDA and a series of panels representing
different stakeholder groups, including patient advocates, consumer
groups, regulated industry, health professionals, and academic
researchers. The stakeholders were asked to respond to the following
questions:
1. What is your assessment of the overall performance of the PDUFA
IV program thus far?
2. What aspects of PDUFA should be retained, changed, or
discontinued to further strengthen and improve the program?
Following the April 2010 public meeting, FDA conducted negotiations
with regulated industry and continued monthly consultations with public
stakeholders from July 2010 through May 2011. As directed by Congress,
FDA posted minutes of these discussions on its Web site at https://www.fda.gov/ForIndustry/UserFees/PrescriptionDrugUserFee/ucm117890.htm.
The proposed enhancements for PDUFA V address many of the top
priorities identified by public stakeholders, the top concerns
identified by regulated industry, and the most important challenges
identified within FDA. These include a new review program for new
molecular entity NDAs and original BLAs, proposals to enhance
regulatory science and expedite drug development, enhanced benefit-risk
assessment, modernization of FDA's drug safety system, requirements for
electronic submissions with standardized application data, a technical
correction related to discontinued products, and modifications to the
PDUFA inflation adjuster with continued evaluation of the workload
adjuster. The full descriptions of these proposed enhancements can be
found in the draft PDUFA V commitment letter (draft commitment letter)
posted on FDA's Web site at https://www.fda.gov/ForIndustry/UserFees/PrescriptionDrugUserFee/ucm149212.htm. Each enhancement is briefly
described below with reference to the section of the draft commitment
letter where more detailed information can be found.
A. A Review Program for New Drug Applications (NDA), New Molecular
Entities (NME), and Original Biologics License Applications (BLA)
FDA's existing review performance goals for priority and standard
[[Page 56203]]
applications, 6 and 10 months respectively, were established in 1997.
Since that time, additional requirements in the drug review process
have made those goals increasingly challenging to meet, particularly
for more complex applications like NME NDAs and original BLAs. FDA also
recognizes that increasing communication between the Agency and
sponsors or applicants during the application review has the potential
to increase efficiency in the review process. To address the desire for
increased communication and efficiency, FDA proposes a new review
program for NME NDAs and original BLAs in PDUFA V that will include
presubmission meetings, mid-cycle communications, and late-cycle
meetings between FDA and sponsors for these applications. FDA's review
clock will begin after the 60-day administrative filing review period
to accommodate this increased interaction during regulatory review. The
impact of these modifications on the efficiency of drug review for this
subset of applications would be assessed during PDUFA V.
B. Enhancing Regulatory Science and Expediting Drug Development
The following five enhancements focus on enhancing regulatory
science and expediting drug development. Regulatory science is the
science of developing and applying new tools, standards, and approaches
to assess the safety, effectiveness, quality, and performance of FDA-
regulated products. The details of these enhancements can be found in
section IX of the draft commitment letter.
1. Promoting Innovation Through Enhanced Communication Between FDA and
Sponsors During Drug Development
FDA recognizes that timely interactive communication with sponsors
can help foster efficient and effective drug development. In some
cases, a sponsor's questions may be complex enough to require a formal
meeting with FDA, but in other instances, a question may be relatively
straightforward such that a response can be provided more quickly.
However, our review staff's workload and other competing public health
priorities can make it challenging to develop an Agency response to
matters outside of the formal meeting process.
This enhancement involves a dedicated drug development
communication and training staff, focused on improving communication
between FDA and sponsors during development. This staff will be
responsible for identifying best practices for communication between
the Agency and sponsors, training review staff, and disseminating best
practices through published guidance.
2. Methods for Meta-Analysis
A meta-analysis typically attempts to combine the data or findings
from multiple completed studies to explore drug benefits and risks and,
in some cases, uncover what might be a potential safety signal in a
premarket or postmarket context. However, there is no consensus on best
practices in conducting a meta-analysis. With the growing availability
of clinical trial data, an increasing number of meta-analyses are being
conducted based on varying sets of data and assumptions. If such
studies conducted outside FDA find a potential safety signal, FDA will
work to try to confirm--or correct--the information about a potential
harm that will create uncertainty for patients and health
professionals. To do this, FDA must work quickly to conduct its own
meta-analyses of publicly available data and the raw clinical trial
data submitted by drug sponsors that would typically not be available
to outside researchers. This is resource-intensive work that often
exceeds the Agency's current scientific and computational capacity,
causing delays in FDA findings that prolong public uncertainty.
This proposed recommendation includes the development of a
dedicated staff to evaluate best practices and limitations in meta-
analysis methods. Through a rigorous public comment process, FDA will
develop guidance on best practices and the Agency's approach to meta-
analysis in regulatory review and decision-making.
3. Biomarkers and Pharmacogenomics
Pharmacogenomics and the application of qualified biomarkers have
the potential to decrease drug development time by helping to
demonstrate benefits, to recognize unmet medical needs, and to identify
patients who are predisposed to adverse events. FDA provides regulatory
advice on the use of biomarkers to facilitate the assessment of human
safety in early phase clinical studies to support claims of efficacy
and to establish the optimal dose selection for pivotal efficacy
studies. This is an area of new science where the Agency has seen a
marked increase in sponsor submissions to FDA. In the 2008 to 2010
period, the Agency experienced nearly a four-fold increase in this type
of review work.
In PDUFA V, FDA will augment the Agency's clinical, clinical
pharmacology, and statistical capacity to adequately address
submissions that propose to utilize biomarkers or pharmacogenomic
markers. The Agency will also hold a public meeting to discuss
potential strategies to facilitate scientific exchanges on biomarker
issues between FDA and drug manufacturers.
4. Use of Patient-Reported Outcomes (PRO)
Assessments of study endpoints known as patient-reported outcomes
(PROs) are increasingly an important part of successful drug
development. PROs measure treatment benefit or risk in medical product
clinical trials from the patients' point of view. PROs are critical in
understanding the drug benefits and harm from the patients'
perspective. However, PROs require rigorous evaluation and statistical
design and analysis to ensure reliability to support claims of clinical
benefit. Early consultation between FDA and drug sponsors can ensure
that endpoints are well-defined and reliable. However, the Agency does
not have the capacity to meet the current demand from industry.
This initiative will improve FDA's clinical and statistical
capacity to address submissions involving PROs and other endpoint
assessment tools, including providing consultation to sponsors during
the early stages of drug development. In addition, FDA will convene a
public meeting to discuss standards for PRO qualification, new theories
in endpoint measurement, and the implications for multinational trials.
5. Development of Drugs for Rare Diseases
FDA's oversight of rare disease drug development is complex and
resource intensive. Rare diseases are a highly diverse collection of
disorders, their natural histories are often not well-described, only
small population sizes are often available for study, and the diseases
do not usually have well-defined outcome measures. This makes the
design, execution, and interpretation of clinical trials for rare
diseases difficult and time consuming, requiring frequent interaction
between FDA and drug sponsors. If recent trends in orphan designations
are any indication, FDA can expect an increase in investigational
activity and marketing applications for drug products for rare diseases
in the future.
This PDUFA V enhancement includes FDA facilitation of rare disease
drug development by issuing relevant guidance, increasing the Agency's
outreach efforts to the rare disease patient community, and providing
specialized training in rare disease drug
[[Page 56204]]
development for sponsors and FDA staff.
C. Enhancing Benefit-Risk Assessment
FDA has been exploring how to develop an enhanced structured
approach to benefit-risk assessments that accurately and concisely
describes the benefit and risk considerations in the Agency's drug
regulatory decision-making. Part of FDA's decision-making lies in
thinking about the context of the decision, including gaining a strong
understanding of the condition treated and the nature and extent of the
unmet medical need. Patients who live with a disease have a direct
stake in the outcome of the drug review process. The FDA drug review
process could benefit from a more systematic and expansive approach to
obtaining the patient perspective on disease severity and the potential
gaps or limitations in available treatments in a therapeutic area.
During PDUFA V, FDA will expand its use of a benefit-risk framework
in the drug review process, including holding public workshops to
discuss the application of frameworks for considering benefits and
risks that are most appropriate for the regulatory setting. FDA will
also conduct a series of public meetings with the relevant patient
advocacy communities to review the medical products available for use
in specific therapeutic areas. The therapeutic areas to be discussed
will be chosen through a public process. This enhancement is discussed
in section X of the draft commitment letter.
D. Enhancement and Modernization of the FDA Drug Safety System
The drug safety enhancements in PDUFA V focus on FDA's use of REMS
and the Sentinel Initiative. Additional information on these proposals
is found in section XI of the draft commitment letter.
1. Standardizing REMS
FDAAA gave FDA authority to require a REMS when FDA finds that a
REMS is necessary to ensure that the benefits of a drug outweigh its
risks. Some REMS are more restrictive types of risk management programs
that include elements to assure safe use (ETASU). These programs can
require such tools as prescriber training or certification, pharmacy
training or certification, dispensing only in certain health care
settings, documentation of safe use conditions, patient monitoring, and
patient registries. ETASU REMS can be challenging to implement and
evaluate, involving cooperation of all segments of the health care
system. Our experience with REMS to date suggests that the development
of multiple individual programs has the potential to create burdens on
the health care system and, in some cases, could limit appropriate
patient access to important therapies.
FDA will initiate a public process in PDUFA V to explore strategies
and initiate projects to standardize REMS programs with the goal of
reducing burden on practitioners, patients, and others in the health
care setting. In addition, FDA will conduct public workshops and
develop guidance on methods for assessing the effectiveness of REMS and
the impact on patient access and burden on the health care system.
2. Using the Sentinel Initiative To Evaluate Drug Safety Issues
FDA's Sentinel Initiative is a long-term program designed to build
and implement a national electronic system for monitoring the safety of
FDA-approved medical products. FDAAA required FDA to collaborate with
Federal, academic, and private entities to develop methods to obtain
access to disparate data sources and validated means to link and
analyze safety data to monitor the safety of drugs after they reach the
market, an activity also known as ``active postmarket drug safety
surveillance.'' FDA will conduct a series of activities during PDUFA V
to determine the feasibility of using Sentinel to evaluate drug safety
issues that may require regulatory action (e.g., labeling changes,
post-marketing requirements, or postmarketing commitments). This may
shorten the time it takes to better understand new or emerging drug
safety issues. By leveraging public and private health care data
sources to quickly evaluate drug safety issues; this proposal may
reduce the Agency's reliance on required postmarketing studies and
clinical trials.
E. Required Electronic Submissions and Standardization of Electronic
Application Data
The predictability of the FDA review process relies heavily on the
quality of sponsor and applicant submissions. The Agency currently
receives submissions of original applications and supplements in
formats ranging from paper-only to electronic-only, as well as hybrids
of the two media. The variability and unpredictability of submitted
formats and clinical data layout present major obstacles to conducting
a timely, efficient, and rigorous review within current PDUFA goal time
frames. A lack of standardized data also limits FDA's ability to
transition to more standardized approaches to benefit-risk assessment
and impedes conduct of safety analyses that inform FDA decisions
related to REMS and other postmarketing requirements. The PDUFA V
enhancements in this area include a phased-in requirement for
standardized, fully electronic submissions for all marketing and
investigational applications. Through partnership with open standards
development organizations, the Agency will also conduct a public
process to develop standardized terminology for clinical and
nonclinical data submitted in marketing and investigational
applications. More information on this initiative can be found in
section XII of the draft commitment letter.
F. Technical Change to Section 736(a)(3)(B) of the FD&C Act Related to
Discontinued Products
FDA proposes to amend section 736(a)(3)(B) of the FD&C Act, which
provides for an exception in assessing a product fee if the same
product is approved as an NDA or ANDA. This amendment will clarify
FDA's long-standing policy to use the active portion of the
Prescription Drug Product List in the ``Approved Drug Products With
Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations'' (generally know as the ``Orange
Book'') to identify fee-eligible prescription drug products. FDA will
assess a product fee on a prescription drug product when there are no
other products on the Prescription Drug Product List that are the same
as that product.
G. PDUFA V Enhancements for a Modified Inflation Adjuster and
Additional Evaluations of the Workload Adjuster
In calculating user fees for each new fiscal year, FDA adjusts the
base revenue amount by inflation and workload as specified in the
statute. PDUFA V financial enhancements include a modification to the
inflation adjuster to more accurately account for changes in FDA's
costs related to payroll compensation and benefits as well as changes
in non-payroll costs through use of the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
This new weighted composite inflation adjuster will help ensure that
increases in fees more closely mirror the inflationary pressures that
have an impact on FDA's costs. FDA will also continue evaluating the
workload adjuster that was developed during the PDUFA IV negotiations
to ensure that it continues to adequately capture changes in FDA's
workload during PDUFA V. These evaluations will include options to
discontinue,
[[Page 56205]]
modify, or retain any element of the workload adjuster.
H. Impact of PDUFA V Enhancements on User Fee Revenue
Implementing the proposed enhancements discussed in the previous
sections of this document will add $40.4 million to the PDUFA user fee
revenue amount in FY 2012. The fee revenue amount for FY 2012 is
$652,709,000 as published by notice in the Federal Register of August
1, 2011 (76 FR 45831). This amount includes the additional user fee
revenues for drug safety in FY 2012 totaling $65 million as specified
in the statute. The additional user fee revenue for the PDUFA V
enhancements translates to a 6-percent increase, and a total base of
$693.1 million in FY 2013. The following table summarizes the FY 2013
baseline and added resources to support the new PDUFA V enhancements:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Financial baseline Dollars
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FY 2012 Baseline \1\................................... $499,412,000
Cumulative Inflation Adjustment for FY 2012............ 104,277,000
Cumulative Workload Adjustment for FY 2012............. 49,020,000
Fee Revenue Amount for FY 2012 \2\..................... 652,709,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PDUFA V Enhancements
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Increased Staff Capacity (129 FTE)..................... 36,120,000
Other Direct Costs..................................... 4,270,000
Total Statutory Revenue Amount for FY 2013 \3\......... 693,099,000
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\1\ In determining the fee revenue amount for FY 2012, sections
736(b)(4)(A) and 736(b)(4)(B) of the FD&C Act direct the Secretary
of Health and Human Services (Secretary) to substitute $392,783,000
plus $65,000,000 (for FY 2012) for the amount in paragraph (1)(A).
Furthermore, paragraph (1)(B) directs the Secretary to add the
amount of the modified workload adjustment for FY 2007 to the amount
in paragraph (1)(A) to determine the total revenue amount in FY
2012. This total is $499,412,000.
\2\ As published in the Federal Register of August 1, 2011 (76
FR 45831).
\3\ Of this amount, $652,709,000 will be further adjusted
according to the new statutory provisions to account for inflation
and workload adjustments in determining fees for FY 2013. These
adjustments must be captured in calculations of user fee revenue for
FYs 2014-2017.
IV. What information should you know about the meeting?
A. When and where will the meeting occur? What format will FDA use?
We will convene a public meeting to hear the public's views on the
proposed recommendations for reauthorization of PDUFA. We will conduct
the meeting on October 24, 2011, at FDA's White Oak Campus (see
ADDRESSES). The meeting will include a presentation by FDA and a series
of panels representing different stakeholder groups identified in the
statute (such as patient advocacy groups, consumer advocacy groups,
health professionals, and regulated industry). We will also provide an
opportunity for other organizations and individuals to make
presentations at the meeting or to submit written comments to the
docket before the meeting.
B. How do you register for the meeting or submit comments?
If you wish to attend this meeting, please register by e-mail at:
PDUFAReauthorization@fda.hhs.gov by October 10, 2011. Your e-mail
should contain complete contact information for each attendee,
including: Name, title, affiliation, address, e-mail address, and phone
number. Registration is free and will be on a first-come, first-served
basis, with the exception below. Early registration is recommended
because seating is limited. FDA may limit the number of participants
from each organization based on space limitations. Registrants will
receive confirmation once they have been accepted. On-site registration
on the day of the meeting will be based on space availability. We will
try to accommodate all persons who wish to make a presentation. If you
need special accommodations because of disability, please contact
Sunanda Bahl (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT) at least 7 days
before the meeting.
In addition, interested persons may submit to the Division of
Dockets Management (see ADDRESSES) either electronic or written
comments regarding this document. It is only necessary to send one set
of comments. It is no longer necessary to send two copies of mailed
comments. Identify comments with the docket number found in brackets in
the heading of this document. Received comments may be seen in the
Division of Dockets Management between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday
through Friday. To ensure consideration, all comments must be received
by October 31, 2011.
C. Will meeting transcripts be available?
Please be advised that as soon as a transcript is available, it
will be accessible at https://www.regulations.gov and https://www.fda.gov. It may be viewed at the Division of Dockets Management
(see ADDRESSES). A transcript will also be made available in either
hard copy or on CD-ROM, after submission of a Freedom of Information
request. Written requests are to be sent to Division of Freedom of
Information (ELEM-1029), Food and Drug Administration, 12420 Parklawn
Dr., Element Bldg., Rockville, MD 20857.
Dated: September 7, 2011.
Leslie Kux,
Acting Assistant Commissioner for Policy.
[FR Doc. 2011-23251 Filed 9-9-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160-01-P