Federal Right-To-Try Law Gains Strength: Hope or False Hype

It seems that after about 5 years of attempts by supporters where Right-To-Try (RTT) laws were passed in about 40 states, the US Congress is getting ready to pass a Federal law that would, on paper, make experimental unproven drugs available to patients more easily. Even FDA, that has been a strong opponent of the … Read more

Lessons From A “War” Between A Compounding Pharmacy and FDA 

In an interesting development, a compounding pharmacy in Arkansas this week filed for a “Temporary Restraining Order” to prevent the FDA from shutting it down after an almost 5 years of back and forth with the FDA auditors and the company being on the verge of permanent closure by FDA. Before we run to judgment … Read more

FDA Amends GCP Guideline to Emphasize Quality Responsibilities

Today FDA released an addendum to ICH E6 (R2), the GCP Guidelines, to include several provisions for quality management responsibilities of the sponsors of clinical trials. These additional requirements apply to any trials conducted under an IND or IDE and used to support a US market approval application. Some important additions include a whole section … Read more

FDA’s Modernized Review Process: Improved Guidance Documents 

Last week FDA announced that it is modernizing multiple aspects of its review processes in an effort to make quick decisions, work collaboratively with sponsors and take patient perspectives into consideration for clinical trial design and market approval decisions. To provide examples of its new approach FDA released five new Guidance Documents for neurological disorders … Read more

FDA Explains the Pre-RFD Process for Combination Product Designation

Sponsors looking to get semi-formal advice from FDA regarding which laws apply to their product; drug, device or biologic, got some help from FDA last week with the release of a new guidance about the pre-request for designation (pre-RFD) process. The RFD process that has been in existence for 15 years is run by the … Read more

FDA Expects GCP Compliance from all Medical Device Trials

This week FDA finalized a rule originally proposed exactly five years ago to the date that makes it mandatory for all clinical trials conducted with new medical devices to be compliant with GCP rules similar to those for drugs and biologics. Although the notification refers to non-US clinical trials, but the details of the rule … Read more

FDA’s Wish-List for 2018 Includes Ambitious and Achievable Goals 

FDA commissioner released a list of priorities for this year that could be categorized into two broad areas: encourage domestic manufacturing, and increase the role of real world evidence (RWE) for product approval. To boost domestic manufacturing, FDA plans to focus its attention of new technologies, particularly for biotechnology products and medical devices. FDA will … Read more

Ethics of Placebo-Controlled Studies: Pediatric Study Challenged

A doctor with competing interests complained that a NIH-funded study similar to his earlier trial was unethical because it involved giving placebo to children. This prompted NIH to call an urgent meeting of the DSMB for the placebo-controlled trial and some changes to the trial to address the concerns. However, this case points to some … Read more

Poor Regulation of Antibiotics in India Creates Global Nightmare 

Drug companies openly sell unapproved antibiotic combinations in India creating a terrifying scenario of prevalence of multidrug resistant bacteria creating incurable infections. There have been several reported cases of the multidrug resistant bacteria infecting travelers bringing the infections to other countries worldwide. According to research study published this week in the British Journal of Clinical … Read more

Cell Phone Radiation and Cancer Puts FDA and NTP at Odds; Somewhat

Cell phones emit Radiofrequency Radiations (RFR), a kind of non-ionizing radiations, which have been suspected to causing cancer with frequent use. Last Friday, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) published preliminary results of its two year carcinogenicity study with cell phone radiation that led to a simultaneous news release by FDA trying to play down the … Read more