Determination of Regulatory Review Period for Purposes of Patent Extension; BRIDION, 6856-6858 [2018-03137]

Download as PDF 6856 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 32 / Thursday, February 15, 2018 / Notices permission to market the drug product. Although only a portion of a regulatory review period may count toward the actual amount of extension that the Director of USPTO may award (for example, half the testing phase must be subtracted as well as any time that may have occurred before the patent was issued), FDA’s determination of the length of a regulatory review period for a human drug product will include all of the testing phase and approval phase as specified in 35 U.S.C. 156(g)(1)(B). FDA has approved for marketing the human drug product ADDYI (flibanserin). ADDYI is indicated for the treatment of premenopausal women with acquired, generalized hypoactive sexual desire disorder as characterized by low sexual desire that causes a marked distress or interpersonal difficulty and is NOT due to: (1) A coexisting medical or psychiatric condition, (2) problems within the relationship, or (3) the effects of a medication or other drug substance. Subsequent to this approval, the USPTO received patent term restoration applications for ADDYI (U.S. Patent Nos. 7,151,103 and 7,420,057) from Sprout Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and the USPTO requested FDA’s assistance in determining the patents’ eligibility for patent term restoration. In a letter dated September 23, 2016, FDA advised the USPTO that this human drug product had undergone a regulatory review period and that the approval of ADDYI represented the first permitted commercial marketing or use of the product. Thereafter, the USPTO requested that FDA determine the product’s regulatory review period. sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES II. Determination of Regulatory Review Period FDA has determined that the applicable regulatory review period for ADDYI is 6,852 days. Of this time, 4,730 days occurred during the testing phase and 2,122 days occurred during the approval phase. These periods of time were derived from the following dates: 1. The date an exemption under section 505(i) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) (21 U.S.C. 355(i)) became effective: November 15, 1996. FDA has verified Sprout Pharmaceuticals, Inc. claims that November 15, 1996, is the date the investigational new drug application became effective. 2. The date the application was initially submitted with respect to the human drug product under section 505 of the FD&C Act: October 27, 2009. FDA has verified the applicant’s claims that the new drug application (NDA) for VerDate Sep<11>2014 19:01 Feb 14, 2018 Jkt 244001 ADDYI (NDA 22–526) was initially submitted on October 27, 2009. 3. The date the application was approved: August 18, 2015. FDA has verified the applicant’s claims that NDA 22–526 was approved on August 18, 2015. This determination of the regulatory review period establishes the maximum potential length of a patent extension. However, the USPTO applies several statutory limitations in its calculations of the actual period for patent extension. In its applications for patent extension, this applicant seeks 5 years of patent term extension. III. Petitions Anyone with knowledge that any of the dates as published are incorrect may submit either electronic or written comments and, under 21 CFR 60.24, ask for a redetermination (see DATES). Furthermore, as specified in § 60.30 (21 CFR 60.30), any interested person may petition FDA for a determination regarding whether the applicant for extension acted with due diligence during the regulatory review period. To meet its burden, the petition must comply with all the requirements of § 60.30, including but not limited to: Must be timely (see DATES), must be filed in accordance with § 10.20, must contain sufficient facts to merit an FDA investigation, and must certify that a true and complete copy of the petition has been served upon the patent applicant. (See H. Rept. 857, part 1, 98th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 41–42, 1984.) Petitions should be in the format specified in 21 CFR 10.30. Submit petitions electronically to https://www.regulations.gov at Docket No. FDA–2013–S–0610. Submit written petitions (two copies are required) to the Dockets Management Staff (HFA–305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. Dated: February 9, 2018. Leslie Kux, Associate Commissioner for Policy. [FR Doc. 2018–03130 Filed 2–14–18; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4164–01–P DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration [Docket No. FDA–2016–E–2524] Determination of Regulatory Review Period for Purposes of Patent Extension; BRIDION AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS. PO 00000 Frm 00023 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 ACTION: Notice. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency) has determined the regulatory review period for BRIDION and is publishing this notice of that determination as required by law. FDA has made the determination because of the submission of an application to the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Department of Commerce, for the extension of a patent which claims that human drug product. DATES: Anyone with knowledge that any of the dates as published (in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section) are incorrect may submit either electronic or written comments and ask for a redetermination by April 16, 2018. Furthermore, any interested person may petition FDA for a determination regarding whether the applicant for extension acted with due diligence during the regulatory review period by August 14, 2018. See ‘‘Petitions’’ in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section for more information. ADDRESSES: You may submit comments as follows. Please note that late, untimely filed comments will not be considered. Electronic comments must be submitted on or before April 16, 2018. The https://www.regulations.gov electronic filing system will accept comments until midnight Eastern Time at the end of April 16, 2018. Comments received by mail/hand delivery/courier (for written/paper submissions) will be considered timely if they are postmarked or the delivery service acceptance receipt is on or before that date. SUMMARY: Electronic Submissions Submit electronic comments in the following way: • Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Comments submitted electronically, including attachments, to https:// www.regulations.gov will be posted to the docket unchanged. Because your comment will be made public, you are solely responsible for ensuring that your comment does not include any confidential information that you or a third party may not wish to be posted, such as medical information, your or anyone else’s Social Security number, or confidential business information, such as a manufacturing process. Please note that if you include your name, contact information, or other information that identifies you in the body of your comments, that information will be posted on https://www.regulations.gov. E:\FR\FM\15FEN1.SGM 15FEN1 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 32 / Thursday, February 15, 2018 / Notices sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES • If you want to submit a comment with confidential information that you do not wish to be made available to the public, submit the comment as a written/paper submission and in the manner detailed (see ‘‘Written/Paper Submissions’’ and ‘‘Instructions’’). Written/Paper Submissions Submit written/paper submissions as follows: • Mail/Hand delivery/Courier (for written/paper submissions): Dockets Management Staff (HFA–305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. • For written/paper comments submitted to the Dockets Management Staff, FDA will post your comment, as well as any attachments, except for information submitted, marked and identified, as confidential, if submitted as detailed in ‘‘Instructions.’’ Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket No. FDA– 2016–E–2524 for ‘‘Determination of Regulatory Review Period for Purposes of Patent Extension; BRIDION.’’ Received comments, those filed in a timely manner (see ADDRESSES), will be placed in the docket and, except for those submitted as ‘‘Confidential Submissions,’’ publicly viewable at https://www.regulations.gov or at the Dockets Management Staff between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. • Confidential Submissions—To submit a comment with confidential information that you do not wish to be made publicly available, submit your comments only as a written/paper submission. You should submit two copies total. One copy will include the information you claim to be confidential with a heading or cover note that states ‘‘THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.’’ The Agency will review this copy, including the claimed confidential information, in its consideration of comments. The second copy, which will have the claimed confidential information redacted/blacked out, will be available for public viewing and posted on https://www.regulations.gov. Submit both copies to the Dockets Management Staff. If you do not wish your name and contact information to be made publicly available, you can provide this information on the cover sheet and not in the body of your comments and you must identify this information as ‘‘confidential.’’ Any information marked as ‘‘confidential’’ will not be disclosed except in accordance with § 10.20 (21 CFR 10.20) and other applicable disclosure law. For more information about FDA’s posting of comments to VerDate Sep<11>2014 19:01 Feb 14, 2018 Jkt 244001 public dockets, see 80 FR 56469, September 18, 2015, or access the information at: https://www.gpo.gov/ fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-09-18/pdf/201523389.pdf. Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or the electronic and written/paper comments received, go to https:// www.regulations.gov and insert the docket number, found in brackets in the heading of this document, into the ‘‘Search’’ box and follow the prompts and/or go to the Dockets Management Staff, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Beverly Friedman, Office of Regulatory Policy, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 51, Rm. 6250, Silver Spring, MD 20993, 301–796–3600. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Background The Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984 (Pub. L. 98–417) and the Generic Animal Drug and Patent Term Restoration Act (Pub. L. 100–670) generally provide that a patent may be extended for a period of up to 5 years so long as the patented item (human drug product, animal drug product, medical device, food additive, or color additive) was subject to regulatory review by FDA before the item was marketed. Under these acts, a product’s regulatory review period forms the basis for determining the amount of extension an applicant may receive. A regulatory review period consists of two periods of time: A testing phase and an approval phase. For human drug products, the testing phase begins when the exemption to permit the clinical investigations of the drug becomes effective and runs until the approval phase begins. The approval phase starts with the initial submission of an application to market the human drug product and continues until FDA grants permission to market the drug product. Although only a portion of a regulatory review period may count toward the actual amount of extension that the Director of USPTO may award (for example, half the testing phase must be subtracted as well as any time that may have occurred before the patent was issued), FDA’s determination of the length of a regulatory review period for a human drug product will include all of the testing phase and approval phase as specified in 35 U.S.C. 156(g)(1)(B). FDA has approved for marketing the human drug product BRIDION (sugammadex sodium). BRIDION is PO 00000 Frm 00024 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 6857 indicated for the reversal of neuromuscular blockade induced by rocuronium bromide and vecuronium bromide in adults undergoing surgery. Subsequent to this approval, the USPTO received a patent term restoration application for BRIDION (U.S. Patent No. RE44733) from Merck Sharp & Dohme, B.V., and the USPTO requested FDA’s assistance in determining this patent’s eligibility for patent term restoration. In a letter dated September 23, 2016, FDA advised the USPTO that this human drug product had undergone a regulatory review period and that the approval of BRIDION represented the first permitted commercial marketing or use of the product. Thereafter, the USPTO requested that FDA determine the product’s regulatory review period. II. Determination of Regulatory Review Period FDA has determined that the applicable regulatory review period for BRIDION is 4,265 days. Of this time, 1,297 days occurred during the testing phase of the regulatory review period, while 2,968 days occurred during the approval phase. These periods of time were derived from the following dates: 1. The date an exemption under section 505(i) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) (21 U.S.C. 355(i)) became effective: April 13, 2004. FDA has verified the applicant’s claim that the date the investigational new drug application became effective was on April 13, 2004. 2. The date the application was initially submitted with respect to the human drug product under section 505 of the FD&C Act: October 31, 2007. FDA has verified the applicant’s claim that the new drug application (NDA) for BRIDION (NDA 022225) was initially submitted on October 31, 2007. 3. The date the application was approved: December 15, 2015. FDA has verified the applicant’s claim that NDA 022225 was approved on December 15, 2015. This determination of the regulatory review period establishes the maximum potential length of a patent extension. However, the USPTO applies several statutory limitations in its calculations of the actual period for patent extension. In its application for patent extension, this applicant seeks 1,826 days of patent term extension. III. Petitions Anyone with knowledge that any of the dates as published are incorrect may submit either electronic or written comments and, under 21 CFR 60.24, ask for a redetermination (see DATES). Furthermore, as specified in § 60.30 (21 E:\FR\FM\15FEN1.SGM 15FEN1 6858 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 32 / Thursday, February 15, 2018 / Notices CFR 60.30), any interested person may petition FDA for a determination regarding whether the applicant for extension acted with due diligence during the regulatory review period. To meet its burden, the petition must comply with all the requirements of § 60.30, including but not limited to: must be timely (see DATES), must be filed in accordance with § 10.20, must contain sufficient facts to merit an FDA investigation, and must certify that a true and complete copy of the petition has been served upon the patent applicant. (See H. Rept. 857, part 1, 98th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 41–42, 1984.) Petitions should be in the format specified in 21 CFR 10.30. Submit petitions electronically to https://www.regulations.gov at Docket No. FDA–2013–S–0610. Submit written petitions (two copies are required) to the Dockets Management Staff (HFA–305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. Dated: February 9, 2018. Leslie Kux, Associate Commissioner for Policy. [FR Doc. 2018–03137 Filed 2–14–18; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4164–01–P DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration [Docket No. FDA–2015–E–1179] Determination of Regulatory Review Period for Purposes of Patent Extension; AVEED AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS. ACTION: Notice. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency) has determined the regulatory review period for AVEED and is publishing this notice of that determination as required by law. FDA has made the determination because of the submission of an application to the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Department of Commerce, for the extension of a patent which claims that human drug product. DATES: Anyone with knowledge that any of the dates as published (in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section) are incorrect may submit either electronic or written comments and ask for a redetermination by April 16, 2018. Furthermore, any interested person may petition FDA for a determination regarding whether the applicant for sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES SUMMARY: VerDate Sep<11>2014 19:01 Feb 14, 2018 Jkt 244001 extension acted with due diligence during the regulatory review period by August 14, 2018. See ‘‘Petitions’’ in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section for more information. ADDRESSES: You may submit comments as follows. Please note that late, untimely filed comments will not be considered. Electronic comments must be submitted on or before April 16, 2018. The https://www.regulations.gov electronic filing system will accept comments until midnight Eastern Time at the end of April 16, 2018. Comments received by mail/hand delivery/courier (for written/paper submissions) will be considered timely if they are postmarked or the delivery service acceptance receipt is on or before that date. Electronic Submissions Submit electronic comments in the following way: • Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Comments submitted electronically, including attachments, to https:// www.regulations.gov will be posted to the docket unchanged. Because your comment will be made public, you are solely responsible for ensuring that your comment does not include any confidential information that you or a third party may not wish to be posted, such as medical information, your or anyone else’s Social Security number, or confidential business information, such as a manufacturing process. Please note that if you include your name, contact information, or other information that identifies you in the body of your comments, that information will be posted on https://www.regulations.gov. • If you want to submit a comment with confidential information that you do not wish to be made available to the public, submit the comment as a written/paper submission and in the manner detailed (see ‘‘Written/Paper Submissions’’ and ‘‘Instructions’’). Written/Paper Submissions Submit written/paper submissions as follows: • Mail/Hand delivery/Courier (for written/paper submissions): Dockets Management Staff (HFA–305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. • For written/paper comments submitted to the Dockets Management Staff, FDA will post your comment, as well as any attachments, except for information submitted, marked and identified, as confidential, if submitted as detailed in ‘‘Instructions.’’ PO 00000 Frm 00025 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket No. FDA– 2015–E–1179 for ‘‘Determination of Regulatory Review Period for Purposes of Patent Extension; AVEED.’’ Received comments, those filed in a timely manner (see ADDRESSES), will be placed in the docket and, except for those submitted as ‘‘Confidential Submissions,’’ publicly viewable at https://www.regulations.gov or at the Dockets Management Staff between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. • Confidential Submissions—To submit a comment with confidential information that you do not wish to be made publicly available, submit your comments only as a written/paper submission. You should submit two copies total. One copy will include the information you claim to be confidential with a heading or cover note that states ‘‘THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.’’ The Agency will review this copy, including the claimed confidential information, in its consideration of comments. The second copy, which will have the claimed confidential information redacted/blacked out, will be available for public viewing and posted on https://www.regulations.gov. Submit both copies to the Dockets Management Staff. If you do not wish your name and contact information to be made publicly available, you can provide this information on the cover sheet and not in the body of your comments and you must identify this information as ‘‘confidential.’’ Any information marked as ‘‘confidential’’ will not be disclosed except in accordance with § 10.20 (21 CFR 10.20) and other applicable disclosure law. For more information about FDA’s posting of comments to public dockets, see 80 FR 56469, September 18, 2015, or access the information at: https://www.gpo.gov/ fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-09-18/pdf/201523389.pdf. Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or the electronic and written/paper comments received, go to https:// www.regulations.gov and insert the docket number, found in brackets in the heading of this document, into the ‘‘Search’’ box and follow the prompts and/or go to the Dockets Management Staff, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Beverly Friedman, Office of Regulatory Policy, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 51, Rm. 6250, Silver Spring, MD 20993, 301–796–3600. E:\FR\FM\15FEN1.SGM 15FEN1

Agencies

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 32 (Thursday, February 15, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6856-6858]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-03137]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Food and Drug Administration

[Docket No. FDA-2016-E-2524]


Determination of Regulatory Review Period for Purposes of Patent 
Extension; BRIDION

AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency) has 
determined the regulatory review period for BRIDION and is publishing 
this notice of that determination as required by law. FDA has made the 
determination because of the submission of an application to the 
Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Department of 
Commerce, for the extension of a patent which claims that human drug 
product.

DATES: Anyone with knowledge that any of the dates as published (in the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section) are incorrect may submit either 
electronic or written comments and ask for a redetermination by April 
16, 2018. Furthermore, any interested person may petition FDA for a 
determination regarding whether the applicant for extension acted with 
due diligence during the regulatory review period by August 14, 2018. 
See ``Petitions'' in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section for more 
information.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments as follows. Please note that late, 
untimely filed comments will not be considered. Electronic comments 
must be submitted on or before April 16, 2018. The https://www.regulations.gov electronic filing system will accept comments until 
midnight Eastern Time at the end of April 16, 2018. Comments received 
by mail/hand delivery/courier (for written/paper submissions) will be 
considered timely if they are postmarked or the delivery service 
acceptance receipt is on or before that date.

Electronic Submissions

    Submit electronic comments in the following way:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Comments submitted 
electronically, including attachments, to https://www.regulations.gov 
will be posted to the docket unchanged. Because your comment will be 
made public, you are solely responsible for ensuring that your comment 
does not include any confidential information that you or a third party 
may not wish to be posted, such as medical information, your or anyone 
else's Social Security number, or confidential business information, 
such as a manufacturing process. Please note that if you include your 
name, contact information, or other information that identifies you in 
the body of your comments, that information will be posted on https://www.regulations.gov.

[[Page 6857]]

     If you want to submit a comment with confidential 
information that you do not wish to be made available to the public, 
submit the comment as a written/paper submission and in the manner 
detailed (see ``Written/Paper Submissions'' and ``Instructions'').

Written/Paper Submissions

    Submit written/paper submissions as follows:
     Mail/Hand delivery/Courier (for written/paper 
submissions): Dockets Management Staff (HFA-305), Food and Drug 
Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.
     For written/paper comments submitted to the Dockets 
Management Staff, FDA will post your comment, as well as any 
attachments, except for information submitted, marked and identified, 
as confidential, if submitted as detailed in ``Instructions.''
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket No. 
FDA-2016-E-2524 for ``Determination of Regulatory Review Period for 
Purposes of Patent Extension; BRIDION.'' Received comments, those filed 
in a timely manner (see ADDRESSES), will be placed in the docket and, 
except for those submitted as ``Confidential Submissions,'' publicly 
viewable at https://www.regulations.gov or at the Dockets Management 
Staff between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
     Confidential Submissions--To submit a comment with 
confidential information that you do not wish to be made publicly 
available, submit your comments only as a written/paper submission. You 
should submit two copies total. One copy will include the information 
you claim to be confidential with a heading or cover note that states 
``THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.'' The Agency will 
review this copy, including the claimed confidential information, in 
its consideration of comments. The second copy, which will have the 
claimed confidential information redacted/blacked out, will be 
available for public viewing and posted on https://www.regulations.gov. 
Submit both copies to the Dockets Management Staff. If you do not wish 
your name and contact information to be made publicly available, you 
can provide this information on the cover sheet and not in the body of 
your comments and you must identify this information as 
``confidential.'' Any information marked as ``confidential'' will not 
be disclosed except in accordance with Sec.  10.20 (21 CFR 10.20) and 
other applicable disclosure law. For more information about FDA's 
posting of comments to public dockets, see 80 FR 56469, September 18, 
2015, or access the information at: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-09-18/pdf/2015-23389.pdf.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
the electronic and written/paper comments received, go to https://www.regulations.gov and insert the docket number, found in brackets in 
the heading of this document, into the ``Search'' box and follow the 
prompts and/or go to the Dockets Management Staff, 5630 Fishers Lane, 
Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Beverly Friedman, Office of Regulatory 
Policy, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 
51, Rm. 6250, Silver Spring, MD 20993, 301-796-3600.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    The Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984 
(Pub. L. 98-417) and the Generic Animal Drug and Patent Term 
Restoration Act (Pub. L. 100-670) generally provide that a patent may 
be extended for a period of up to 5 years so long as the patented item 
(human drug product, animal drug product, medical device, food 
additive, or color additive) was subject to regulatory review by FDA 
before the item was marketed. Under these acts, a product's regulatory 
review period forms the basis for determining the amount of extension 
an applicant may receive.
    A regulatory review period consists of two periods of time: A 
testing phase and an approval phase. For human drug products, the 
testing phase begins when the exemption to permit the clinical 
investigations of the drug becomes effective and runs until the 
approval phase begins. The approval phase starts with the initial 
submission of an application to market the human drug product and 
continues until FDA grants permission to market the drug product. 
Although only a portion of a regulatory review period may count toward 
the actual amount of extension that the Director of USPTO may award 
(for example, half the testing phase must be subtracted as well as any 
time that may have occurred before the patent was issued), FDA's 
determination of the length of a regulatory review period for a human 
drug product will include all of the testing phase and approval phase 
as specified in 35 U.S.C. 156(g)(1)(B).
    FDA has approved for marketing the human drug product BRIDION 
(sugammadex sodium). BRIDION is indicated for the reversal of 
neuromuscular blockade induced by rocuronium bromide and vecuronium 
bromide in adults undergoing surgery. Subsequent to this approval, the 
USPTO received a patent term restoration application for BRIDION (U.S. 
Patent No. RE44733) from Merck Sharp & Dohme, B.V., and the USPTO 
requested FDA's assistance in determining this patent's eligibility for 
patent term restoration. In a letter dated September 23, 2016, FDA 
advised the USPTO that this human drug product had undergone a 
regulatory review period and that the approval of BRIDION represented 
the first permitted commercial marketing or use of the product. 
Thereafter, the USPTO requested that FDA determine the product's 
regulatory review period.

II. Determination of Regulatory Review Period

    FDA has determined that the applicable regulatory review period for 
BRIDION is 4,265 days. Of this time, 1,297 days occurred during the 
testing phase of the regulatory review period, while 2,968 days 
occurred during the approval phase. These periods of time were derived 
from the following dates:
    1. The date an exemption under section 505(i) of the Federal Food, 
Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) (21 U.S.C. 355(i)) became effective: 
April 13, 2004. FDA has verified the applicant's claim that the date 
the investigational new drug application became effective was on April 
13, 2004.
    2. The date the application was initially submitted with respect to 
the human drug product under section 505 of the FD&C Act: October 31, 
2007. FDA has verified the applicant's claim that the new drug 
application (NDA) for BRIDION (NDA 022225) was initially submitted on 
October 31, 2007.
    3. The date the application was approved: December 15, 2015. FDA 
has verified the applicant's claim that NDA 022225 was approved on 
December 15, 2015.
    This determination of the regulatory review period establishes the 
maximum potential length of a patent extension. However, the USPTO 
applies several statutory limitations in its calculations of the actual 
period for patent extension. In its application for patent extension, 
this applicant seeks 1,826 days of patent term extension.

III. Petitions

    Anyone with knowledge that any of the dates as published are 
incorrect may submit either electronic or written comments and, under 
21 CFR 60.24, ask for a redetermination (see DATES). Furthermore, as 
specified in Sec.  60.30 (21

[[Page 6858]]

CFR 60.30), any interested person may petition FDA for a determination 
regarding whether the applicant for extension acted with due diligence 
during the regulatory review period. To meet its burden, the petition 
must comply with all the requirements of Sec.  60.30, including but not 
limited to: must be timely (see DATES), must be filed in accordance 
with Sec.  10.20, must contain sufficient facts to merit an FDA 
investigation, and must certify that a true and complete copy of the 
petition has been served upon the patent applicant. (See H. Rept. 857, 
part 1, 98th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 41-42, 1984.) Petitions should be in 
the format specified in 21 CFR 10.30.
    Submit petitions electronically to https://www.regulations.gov at 
Docket No. FDA-2013-S-0610. Submit written petitions (two copies are 
required) to the Dockets Management Staff (HFA-305), Food and Drug 
Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.

    Dated: February 9, 2018.
Leslie Kux,
Associate Commissioner for Policy.
[FR Doc. 2018-03137 Filed 2-14-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4164-01-P
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