New Drug Application - Requirements For Similar Products

Requirements For Similar Products

Biologics, such as vaccines and many recombinant proteins used in medical treatments are generally approved by FDA via a Biologic License Application (BLA), rather than an NDA. The manufacture of biologics is considered to differ fundamentally from that of less complex chemicals, requiring a somewhat different approval process.

Generic drugs that have already been approved via an NDA submitted by another maker are approved via an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA), which does not require all of the clinical trials normally required for a new drug in an NDA. Most biological drugs, including a majority of recombinant proteins are considered ineligible for an ANDA under current US law. However, a handful of biologic medicines, including biosynthetic insulin, growth hormone, glucagon, calcitonin, and hyaluronidase are grandfathered under governance of the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetics Act, which appears to be because these products were already approved when legislation aimed at regulating biotechnology medicines was later passed as part of the Public Health Services Act.

Biologic medicines governed under the Federal Food Drugs and Cosmetics Act has been an area of considerable confusion and dispute for the FDA, because under section 505(b)(2) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, a "generic" need not be an exact duplicate of the brand-name original in order to be approved. In July 2003, the Sandoz generics unit of Novartis filed, and the FDA accepted, an ANDA for a "follow-on" version of Pfizer's brand-name human growth hormone (Genotropin) that Sandoz named Omnitrope using the 505(b)(2) pathway. The application was submitted following lengthy discussions with the FDA and contained preclinical, clinical, and comparability data, as well as literature references to the FDA's original decision on Pfizer's Genotropin. But on September 2, 2004, the FDA told Sandoz that the Agency was unable to reach a decision on whether to approve the company's application for Omnitrope. Frustrated with the FDA's failure to give them a decision on Omnitrope, Sandoz then sued the FDA in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., citing a statutory requirement that the FDA is required by law to act on drug applications within 180 days.

Medications intended for use in animals are submitted to a different center within FDA, the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) in a New Animal Drug Application (NADA). These are also specifically evaluated for their use in food animals and their possible effect on the food from animals treated with the drug.

Medical devices are approved by a variety of methods depending on the class of the device. A Pre-market Application (PMA) largely equivalent to an NDA is required for class III devices, and a 510(k) clearance that shows the device is "substantially equivalent " to a predicate device already on the market is required for class II devices. In general, Class I medical devices (such as a toothbrush) do not require any approval at all.