[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 96 (Monday, May 19, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28735-28736]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-11517]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Food and Drug Administration
[Docket No. FDA-2013-E-0056]
Determination of Regulatory Review Period for Purposes of Patent
Extension; ZIOPTAN
AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined the
regulatory review period for ZIOPTAN and is publishing this notice of
that determination as required by law. FDA has made the determination
because of the submission of an application to the Director of Patents
and Trademarks, Department of Commerce, for the extension of a patent
which claims that human drug product.
ADDRESSES: Submit electronic comments to http://www.regulations.gov.
Submit written petitions (two copies are required) and written comments
to the Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305), Food and Drug
Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.
Submit petitions electronically to http://www.regulations.gov at Docket
No. FDA-2013-S-0610.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Beverly Friedman, Office of
Management, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug
Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 51, Rm. 6257, Silver
Spring, MD 20993-0002, 301-796-7900.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Drug Price Competition and Patent Term
Restoration Act of 1984 (Pub. L. 98-417) and the Generic Animal Drug
and Patent Term Restoration Act (Pub. L. 100-670) generally provide
that a patent may be extended for a period of up to 5 years so long as
the patented item (human drug product, animal drug product, medical
device, food additive, or color additive) was subject to regulatory
review by FDA before the item was marketed. Under these acts, a
product's regulatory review period forms the basis for determining the
amount of extension an applicant may receive.
A regulatory review period consists of two periods of time: A
testing phase and an approval phase. For human drug products, the
testing phase begins when the exemption to permit the clinical
investigations of the drug becomes effective and runs until the
approval phase begins. The approval phase starts with the initial
submission of an application to market the human drug product and
continues until FDA grants permission to market the drug product.
Although only a portion of a regulatory review period may count toward
the actual amount of extension that the Director of Patents and
Trademarks may award (for example, half the testing phase must be
subtracted as well as any time that may have occurred before the patent
was issued), FDA's determination of the length of a regulatory review
period for a human drug product will include all of the testing phase
and approval phase as specified in 35 U.S.C. 156(g)(1)(B).
FDA has approved for marketing the human drug product ZIOPTAN
(tafluprost). ZIOPTAN is indicated for reducing elevated intraocular
pressure in patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension.
Subsequent to this
[[Page 28736]]
approval, the Patent and Trademark Office received a patent term
restoration application for ZIOPTAN (U.S. Patent No. 5,886,035) from
Asahi Glass Company Ltd., and the Patent and Trademark Office requested
FDA's assistance in determining this patent's eligibility for patent
term restoration. In a letter dated February 19, 2013, FDA advised the
Patent and Trademark Office that this human drug product had undergone
a regulatory review period and that the approval of ZIOPTAN represented
the first permitted commercial marketing or use of the product.
Thereafter, the Patent and Trademark Office requested that FDA
determine the product's regulatory review period.
FDA has determined that the applicable regulatory review period for
ZIOPTAN is 3,881 days. Of this time, 3,481 days occurred during the
testing phase of the regulatory review period, while 400 days occurred
during the approval phase. These periods of time were derived from the
following dates:
1. The date an exemption under section 505(i) of the Federal Food,
Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the FD&C Act) (21 U.S.C. 355(i)) became
effective: June 28, 2001. The applicant claims June 24, 2001, as the
date the investigational new drug application (IND) became effective.
However, FDA records indicate that the IND effective date was June 28,
2001, which was 30 days after FDA receipt of the IND.
2. The date the application was initially submitted with respect to
the human drug product under section 505(b) of the FD&C Act: January 7,
2011. FDA has verified the applicant's claim that the new drug
application (NDA) for ZIOPTAN (NDA 202514) was submitted on January 7,
2011.
3. The date the application was approved: February 10, 2012. FDA
has verified the applicant's claim that NDA 202514 was approved on
February 10, 2012.
This determination of the regulatory review period establishes the
maximum potential length of a patent extension. However, the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office applies several statutory limitations in
its calculations of the actual period for patent extension. In its
application for patent extension, this applicant seeks 5 years of
patent term extension.
Anyone with knowledge that any of the dates as published are
incorrect may submit to the Division of Dockets Management (see
ADDRESSES) either electronic or written comments and ask for a
redetermination by July 18, 2014. Furthermore, any interested person
may petition FDA for a determination regarding whether the applicant
for extension acted with due diligence during the regulatory review
period by November 17, 2014. To meet its burden, the petition must
contain sufficient facts to merit an FDA investigation. (See H. Rept.
857, part 1, 98th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 41-42, 1984.) Petitions should
be in the format specified in 21 CFR 10.30.
Interested persons may submit to the Division of Dockets Management
(see ADDRESSES) electronic or written comments and written or
electronic petitions. It is only necessary to send one set of comments.
Identify comments with the docket number found in brackets in the
heading of this document. If you submit a written petition, two copies
are required. A petition submitted electronically must be submitted to
http://www.regulations.gov, Docket No. FDA-2013-S-0610. Comments and
petitions that have not been made publicly available on http://www.regulations.gov may be viewed in the Division of Dockets Management
between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Dated: May 14, 2014.
Leslie Kux,
Assistant Commissioner for Policy.
[FR Doc. 2014-11517 Filed 5-16-14; 8:45 am]
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