[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 189 (Friday, September 29, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57545-57546]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-15969]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Food and Drug Administration

[Docket No. 2004E-0425]


Determination of Regulatory Review Period for Purposes of Patent 
Extension; PLENAXIS

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 PLENAXIS and is publishing this notice of 
that determination as required by

[[Page 57546]]

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 that claims that human drug 
product.

ADDRESSES: Submit written comments and petitions to the Division of 
Dockets Management (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 
Fishers Lane, rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. Submit electronic comments 
to http://www.fda.gov/dockets/ecomments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Beverly Friedman, Office of Regulatory 
Policy (HFD-007), Food and Drug Administration, 5600 Fishers Lane, 
Rockville, MD 20857, 301-594-2041.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Drug Price Competition and Patent Term 
Restoration Act of 1984 (Public Law 98-417) and the Generic Animal Drug 
and Patent Term Restoration Act (Public Law 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 human drug product 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 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 recently approved for marketing the human drug product PLENAXIS 
(abarelix). PLENAXIS is indicated for the palliative treatment of men 
with advanced symptomatic prostate cancer, in whom luteinizing hormone 
releasing hormone agonist therapy is not appropriate and who refuse 
surgical castration, and have one or more of the following: (1) Risk of 
neurological compromise due to metastases, (2) ureteral or bladder 
outlet obstruction due to local encroachment or metastatic disease, or 
(3) severe bone pain from skeletal metastases persisting on narcotic 
analgesia. Subsequent to this approval, the Patent and Trademark Office 
received a patent term restoration application for PLENAXIS (U.S. 
Patent No. 5,843,901) from Praecis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and the 
Patent and Trademark Office requested FDA's assistance in determining 
this patent's eligibility for patent term restoration. In a letter 
dated October 19, 2004, FDA advised the Patent and Trademark Office 
that this human drug product had undergone a regulatory review period 
and that the approval of PLENAXIS represented the first permitted 
commercial marketing or use of the product. Shortly 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 
PLENAXIS is 2,566 days. Of this time, 1,487 days occurred during the 
testing phase of the regulatory review period, while 1,079 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 act) (21 U.S.C. 355(i)) became effective: 
November 17, 1996. FDA has verified the applicant's claim that the date 
the investigational new drug application became effective was on 
November 17, 1996.
    2. The date the application was initially submitted with respect to 
the human drug product under section 505(b) of the act: December 12, 
2000. FDA has verified the applicant's claim that the new drug 
application (NDA) for Plenaxis (NDA 21-320) was initially submitted on 
December 12, 2000.
    3. The date the application was approved: November 25, 2003. FDA 
has verified the applicant's claim that NDA 21-320 was approved on 
November 25, 2003.
    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 725 days 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) written or electronic comments and ask for a redetermination 
by November 28, 2006. 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 March 
28, 2007. 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.
    Comments and petitions should be submitted to the Division of 
Dockets Management. Three copies of any mailed information are to be 
submitted, except that individuals may submit one copy. Comments are to 
be identified with the docket number found in brackets in the heading 
of this document. Comments and petitions may be seen in the Division of 
Dockets Management between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

    Dated: September 1, 2006.
Jane A. Axelrad,
Associate Director for Policy,Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
[FR Doc. E6-15969 Filed 9-28-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160-01-S