ARTICLES BY KATE COOK

• Bracing For March 23: FDA Issues Final Q&A On Transition Biologics

  For 10 years, the date March 23, 2020 was circled in red on the FDA calendar. On that “transition date,” certain drugs FDA approved under the drug approval statute were “deemed” to have a biologics license instead of a New Drug Application approval. How soon will biosimilars see an impact?

• Are You Prepared For Impending Changes To U.S. Biologics & Biosimilars Law?

  Sponsors for insulins and other protein products originally submitted for premarket review under an NDA may be anticipating the arrival of March 23, 2020 with trepidation. On that date, the BPCIA requires that those NDA-approved products will be deemed to have a BLA approval instead of an NDA approval.

• How The Purple Book Continuity Act Could Challenge Biosimilars & The FDA

  On March 5, 2019, Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) introduced H.R. 1520, the “Purple Book Continuity Act of 2019.” The bill addresses the availability of information about approved biological products that may support the development of biosimilar products. It has five cosponsors in the House, drawn from both sides of the aisle, and was considered with five other bills by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on April 3, 2019. The Committee advanced the bill, along with five others, as a step toward addressing runaway drug pricing.

• FDA Guidance On Premarket Pathways For Combo Products — What It Does (And Doesn’t) Say

  Last month, the FDA published the draft guidance “Principles of Premarket Pathways for Combination Products.”  The document describes what a combination product is and how to interact with the FDA when developing a combination product, and it identifies some of the principles the agency uses in determining what type of premarket submission should be made. 

• Surveying The U.S. Regulatory Landscape For Cell And Gene Therapies

  The FDA has been issuing guidance documents addressing gene therapy development issues for approximately 20 years — a remarkable dedication of resources to an area that did not have a licensed product until 2017. Of the six gene therapy-related draft guidances the agency issued last month, two represent the first of the “suite of disease-specific guidance documents on the development of specific gene therapy products” Commissioner Scott Gottlieb promised in Dec. 2017. 

• FDA’s New Guidance On CMC For Gene Therapy INDs — What You Need To Know

  The FDA recently issued for public comment six draft guidance documents intended to serve as part of a modern, comprehensive framework for how CBER will help advance the field of gene therapy.