Celebrating the 3rd Anniversary of the FDA Safety and Innovation Act

Posted on July 9, 2015 by FDA Voice

By: Stephen M. Ostroff, M.D.

Anniversaries are celebrated for many different reasons. Sometimes it is to recognize the enduring strength of an institution. Other times it offers an opportunity to gauge success or progress.

Acting FDA Commissioner, Stephen Ostroff, M.D.

One commemoration that falls into the latter category is today’s third anniversary of the signing of the landmark Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act or, as it is known in the world of Washington acronyms, FDASIA.

FDASIA gave FDA authority to collect user fees from industry over five years ago, beginning in 2012, to fund reviews of innovator drugs, medical devices, generic drugs, and biosimilar biological products.

It also promotes innovation to speed patient access to safe and effective products, increases stakeholder involvement in FDA processes, and enhances the safety of the drug supply chain. Just as important, FDASIA improves the agency’s ability to help prevent drug shortages.

FDA has made great strides to implement this important law since President Obama signed it, issuing more than 35 draft and final guidances, more than 10 proposed and final rules, three strategic plans, 14 reports to Congress, 18 public reports, and 13 public meetings designed to solicit input from a vast assortment of stakeholders.

All told, we have completed more than 70% of the law’s deliverables and we continue to maintain our commitment to a transparent and accessible implementation plan that allows the public to follow our progress.

Our work on additional action items continues.

Just two days ago we completed another task – issuing a final rule that requires all manufacturers of certain medically important drug and biologic products to give FDA early notification of potential drug shortages and to report the reasons for that potential shortage.

This step is the latest in a series of changes FDA has made to significantly reduce drug shortages. Those efforts have helped to prevent 282 shortages in 2012, 170 in 2013, and 101 in 2014.

This progress is but one example of how FDA’s work under FDASIA is making an important difference for patients and health care professionals who depend on these products.

One of the most significant provisions of FDASIA was the creation of a new Breakthrough Therapy designation for drugs and biologics intended for serious or life-threatening illnesses where preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the drug may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies.

As of last month, 315 requests for this special designation have been received and 93 drugs and biologics have been granted breakthrough status. Expedited development is underway for the majority of these breakthrough designated products, while 26 breakthrough therapy drug/indication combinations have already been approved and are now on the market for use by patients. This program, which, along with fast track, accelerated approval, and priority review, was the topic of FDA’s final guidance on our expedited review programs, also has helped facilitate earlier and continuing consultation and advice by FDA for industry researchers and product developers.

In large part, as a result of these expedited programs, we saw the approval of a record number of new drugs in 2014 for the treatment of both rare diseases and more common conditions like various forms of cancer and hepatitis C. We also saw the approval of a record number of biologics, including new vaccines for meningococcus type B.

Innovation is being promoted under FDASIA through greater patient engagement, including a five-year Patient Focused Drug Development program to learn from patients about the impact of their disease on their daily lives. Since its creation, we have held 14 meetings with patients on subjects such as chronic fatigue syndrome, lung cancer, HIV, and narcolepsy.

As this strategy makes clear, knowledge and understanding of a patient’s perspective on disease are critical. But equally significant is the importance of ensuring adequate data quality and transparency in research to develop new treatments. That brings up another area of great progress under FDASIA: addressing the longstanding concern about representation of women and minorities in clinical trials that support marketing applications for medical products.

In 2014, in response to Congress’s request in Section 907 of FDASIA, we produced an Action Plan to help close gaps in data quality, clinical trial participation, and data access. We have issued a guidance document on the “Evaluation of Sex-Specific Data in Medical Device Clinical Studies,” and we’re working to promote clinical trial participation by women and minorities. We also are posting on our website easy-to-understand Drug Trials Snapshots which provide the breakdown of clinical trial participants by age, race, and sex for newly-approved drugs and biologics. Snapshots also summarize whether there were differences in efficacy and safety among different subgroups.

Part of our efforts to implement and achieve the goals of FDASIA is helping us address the enormous global changes affecting FDA’s responsibilities.

With roughly 40 percent of finished drugs coming from outside our borders, and 80 percent of active ingredient manufacturers being located outside of the U.S., protecting the U.S. drug supply chain and making sure that patients have access to the drugs they need is a continuing priority for FDA.

FDASIA includes a set of provisions, contained in Title VII of the statute, which gave FDA new authorities to address the challenges posed by an increasingly global drug supply chain.

Given the enormity of FDA’s responsibilities, including the many new responsibilities authorized by Congress, combined with the budgetary challenges we face in this time of fiscal limitations, user fee funds play a critical role in FDA’s continued progress and excellence, including providing critical support to our staff of experts and helping maintain the high quality of their work.

Looking ahead, we have begun to plan for the next reauthorization of our user fee programs, beginning with a series of stakeholder meetings that began last month.

And, some of the themes advanced in FDASIA – encouraging antibiotic drug development, patient engagement, and the importance of biomarkers – are being considered by Congress as part of the 21st Century Cures initiative now making its way through Congress.

FDASIA provided enormous new responsibilities but also presented many promising opportunities. As we continue our progress in implementing this landmark law, we anticipate that we will continue to meet – and even exceed – the goals of the law as we strive to fulfill our mission to protect and promote the health of the American public.

Stephen M. Ostroff, M.D., is Acting Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration