Department of Health and Human Services November 27, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or Agency) announces a forthcoming public advisory committee meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. The general function of the committee is to provide advice and recommendations to the Agency on FDA's regulatory issues. The meeting will be open to the public. FDA is establishing a docket for public comment on this document. Consistent with FDA's regulations, this notice is being published with less than 15 days prior to the date of the meeting based on a determination that convening a meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee as soon as possible is warranted. This Federal Register notice could not be published 15 days prior to the date of the meeting due to a recent submission of a request for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for an investigational vaccine to prevent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the need for prompt discussion of such submission, given the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is announcing an opportunity for the public to comment on CMS' intention to collect information from the public. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (the PRA), federal agencies are required to publish notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information (including each proposed extension or reinstatement of an existing collection of information) and to allow 60 days for public comment on the proposed action. Interested persons are invited to send comments regarding our burden estimates or any other aspect of this collection of information, including the necessity and utility of the proposed information collection for the proper performance of the agency's functions, the accuracy of the estimated burden, ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected, and the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology to minimize the information collection burden.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency) is extending the comment period for the notice announcing a public meeting and requesting comments that appeared in the Federal Register of October 13, 2020. In that notice, FDA announced a public meeting, held on November 16, 2020, and requested public input on a potential revised approach for considering the human medical importance of antimicrobial new animal drugs when assessing and managing the antimicrobial resistance risks associated with the use of antimicrobial drugs in animals. Specifically, the Agency requested comments on the potential revised process for ranking antimicrobials according to their relative importance in human medicine, on the potential criteria for their ranking, and on the resulting ranked list of antimicrobial drugs. FDA is taking this action in response to several requests for extension to allow interested persons additional time to submit comments.

The inventions listed below are owned by an agency of the U.S. Government and are available for licensing to achieve expeditious commercialization of results of federally-funded research and development.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is announcing an opportunity for the public to comment on CMS' intention to collect information from the public. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), federal agencies are required to publish notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information, including each proposed extension or reinstatement of an existing collection of information, and to allow a second opportunity for public comment on the notice. Interested persons are invited to send comments regarding the burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including the necessity and utility of the proposed information collection for the proper performance of the agency's functions, the accuracy of the estimated burden, ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected, and the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology to minimize the information collection burden.

This interim final rule with comment period (IFC) implements the Most Favored Nation (MFN) Model, a new Medicare payment model under section 1115A of the Social Security Act (the Act). The MFN Model will test whether more closely aligning payment for Medicare Part B drugs and biologicals (hereafter, referred to as ``drugs'') with international prices and removing incentives to use higher-cost drugs can control unsustainable growth in Medicare Part B spending without adversely affecting quality of care for beneficiaries.

The Immediate Office of the Secretary (IOS) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) to assist the Department in identifying redundant, overlapping, or inconsistent regulations.