2017-24296. Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Guidance for Industry on Expedited Programs for Serious Conditions-Drugs and Biologics

AGENCY:

Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or Agency) is announcing an opportunity for public comment on the proposed collection of certain information by the Agency. 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 revision of an existing collection of information, and to allow 60 days for public comment in response to the notice. This notice solicits comments on the information collection in the guidance for industry “Expedited Programs for Serious Conditions—Drugs and Biologics.”

DATES:

Submit either electronic or written comments on the collection of information by January 8, 2018.

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 January 8, 2018. The https://www.regulations.gov electronic filing system will accept comments until midnight Eastern Time at the end of January 8, 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.”

Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket No. FDA-2013-D-0575 for “Guidance for Industry on Expedited Programs for Serious Conditions—Drugs and Biologics.” 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 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:

Domini Bean, Office of Operations, Food and Drug Administration, Three White Flint North, 10A-12M, 11601 Landsdown St., North Bethesda, MD 20852, 301-796-5733, [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

 

Guidance for Industry on Expedited Programs for Serious Conditions—Drugs and Biologics

OMB Control Number 0910-0765—Revision

This information collection supports the previous captioned Agency guidance. The guidance provides a single resource for information on FDA's policies and procedures related to the following expedited programs for serious conditions: (1) Fast track designation, (2) breakthrough therapy designation, (3) accelerated approval, and (4) priority review designation. The guidance describes threshold criteria generally applicable to expedited programs, including what is meant by serious condition, unmet medical need, and available therapy. The guidance addresses the applicability of expedited programs to rare diseases, clarification on available therapy, and additional detail on possible flexibility in manufacturing and product quality. The guidance also clarifies the qualifying criteria for breakthrough therapy designation and provides examples of surrogate endpoints and intermediate clinical endpoints used to support accelerated approval.

The information collection resulting from requests for priority review designation and breakthrough therapy designation is set forth in rows 1 and 2 of table 1 and is approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under control number 0910-0765. The information collection resulting from requests for accelerated approval is approved by OMB under control numbers 0910-0001 and 0910-0338.

The provisions of the guidance relating to fast track development and other issues such as serious condition and unmet medical need replace the guidance entitled “Fast Track Drug Development Programs—Designation, Development, and Application Review.” Consequently, the information collection resulting from the guidance “Fast Track Drug Development Programs—Designation, Development, and Application Review” (OMB control number 0910-0389) is now being incorporated into OMB control number 0910-0765 (guidance for industry “Expedited Programs for Serious Conditions—Drugs and Biologics”).

A sponsor or applicant who seeks fast track designation is required to submit a request to the Agency showing that the drug product: (1) Is intended for a serious or life-threatening condition and (2) has the potential to address an unmet medical need. The Agency expects that most information to support a designation request will have been gathered under existing requirements for preparing an investigational new drug (IND), new drug application (NDA), or biologic license application (BLA). If such information has already been submitted to the Agency, the information may be summarized in the fast track designation request. A designation request should include, where applicable, additional information not specified elsewhere by statute or regulation. For example, additional information may be needed to show that a product has the potential to address an unmet medical need where an approved therapy exists for the serious or life-threatening condition to be treated. Such information may include clinical data, published reports, summaries of data and reports, and a list of references. The amount of information and discussion in a designation request need not be voluminous, but it should be sufficient to permit a reviewer to assess whether the criteria for fast track designation have been met.

After the Agency makes a fast track designation, a sponsor or applicant may submit a premeeting package that may include additional information supporting a request to participate in certain fast track programs. The premeeting package serves as background information for the meeting and should support the intended objectives of the meeting. As with the request for fast track designation, the Agency expects that most sponsors or applicants will have gathered such information to meet existing requirements for preparing an IND, NDA, or BLA. These may include descriptions of clinical safety and efficacy trials not conducted under an IND (e.g., foreign studies) and information to support a request for accelerated approval. If such information has already been submitted to FDA, the information may be summarized in the premeeting package.

The Agency estimates the total annual number of respondents submitting requests for fast track designation is approximately 140, and the number of requests received is approximately 187 annually. FDA estimates that the number of hours needed to prepare a request for fast track designation is approximately 60 hours per request (row 3 in table 1).

Of the requests for fast track designation made per year, the Agency granted approximately 132 requests from 107 respondents, and for each of these granted requests, a premeeting package was submitted to the Agency. FDA estimates that the preparation hours are approximately 100 hours per premeeting package (row 4 in table 1).

The guidance also refers to previously approved collections of information found in FDA regulations. The collections of information in 21 CFR 202.1 and 21 CFR parts 314, and 601, and sections 505(a), 506(a)(1), 735, and 736 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 355(a), 356(a)(1), 379(g), and 379(h)) have been approved under OMB control numbers 0910-0686, 0910-0001, 0910-0338, 0910-0014, and 0910-0297.

FDA estimates the burden of this collection of information as follows:

Table 1—Estimated Annual Reporting Burden ¹

Guidance for Industry: Expedited Programs for Serious Conditions—Drugs and Biologics	Number of respondents	Number of responses per respondent	Total annual responses	Average burden per response	Total hours
Priority review designation request	48	1.7	82	30	2,400
Breakthrough therapy designation request	87	1.29	113	70	7,910
Fast track designation request	140	1.33	187	60	11,220
Fast track premeeting packages	107	1.23	132	100	13,200
Total					34,730
1 There are no capital costs or operating and maintenance costs associated with this collection of information.

The data pertaining to fast track designation (last two rows of table 1) has changed since the last OMB approval.

Dated: November 2, 2017.

Anna K. Abram,

Deputy Commissioner for Policy, Planning, Legislation, and Analysis.