Will There Be an Uptick in FDA NDA Approvals This Year?

Late last year, John Jenkins, director of the FDA’s Office of New Drugs told attendees at an event that the decline in new drug approvals (NDAs) was not due to a shift in FDA standards or policies. The number in 2016 (22) is remarkably lower than the total in 2015 (45). Could there be changes in 2017? Report from event: Uptick in 2017? Regulatory Focus reported from the Prevision Policy conference, quoting Jenkins directly: “There are fewer applications in front of us to act upon,” Jenkins said, noting that although he cannot discuss individual applications, a handful of the complete response letters (CRLs) issued in 2016 were due to good manufacturing practice (GMP) deficiencies and the need for FDA to conduct inspections. But Jenkins did say that there has been an uptick recently in the number of applications received, meaning the number of approvals could increase in 2017. Recent news of an FDA approved drug to treat Parkinson’s disease lends some evidence to that claim. The drug, Xadago (safinamide), is an add-on treatment for patients with Parkinson’s disease who are currently taking levodopa/carbidopa and experiencing “off” episodes. An “off” episode is a time when a patient’s medications are not working well, causing an increase in Parkinson’s symptoms, such as tremor and difficulty walking. MERIT Act Introduced by Rep. Larry Loudermilk (R., Ga.), the Modern Employment Reform, Improvement, and Transformation (MERIT) Act, H.R. 559, would make ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs