[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 77 (Wednesday, April 22, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Page 22528]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-09302]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Food and Drug Administration

[Docket No. FDA-2014-E-0131]


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

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 COMETRIQ 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 the U.S. 
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), 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, Food and Drug Administration, 10001 New Hampshire Ave., 
Hillandale Campus, Rm. 3180, Silver Spring, MD 20993, 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 USPTO 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 COMETRIQ 
(cabozanitinib (S)-maleate). COMETRIQ is indicated for the treatment of 
patients with progressive, metastatic medullary thyroid cancer. 
Subsequent to this approval, the USPTO received a patent term 
restoration application for COMETRIQ (U.S. Patent No. 7,579,473) from 
Exelixis, Incorporated, and the USPTO requested FDA's assistance in 
determining this patent's eligibility for patent term restoration. In a 
letter dated March 27, 2014, FDA advised the USPTO that this human drug 
product had undergone a regulatory review period and that the approval 
of COMETRIQ represented the first permitted commercial marketing or use 
of the product. Thereafter, the USPTO requested that FDA determine the 
product's regulatory review period.
    FDA has determined that the applicable regulatory review period for 
COMETRIQ is 2,698 days. Of this time, 2,513 days occurred during the 
testing phase of the regulatory review period, while 185 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: July 13, 2005. FDA has verified the applicant's claim that 
the date the investigational new drug application became effective was 
on July 13, 2005.
    2. The date the application was initially submitted with respect to 
the human drug product under section 505(b) of the FD&C Act: May 29, 
2012. FDA has verified the applicant's claim that the new drug 
application (NDA) for COMETRIQ (NDA 203756) was submitted on May 29, 
2012.
    3. The date the application was approved: November 29, 2012. FDA 
has verified the applicant's claim that NDA 203756 was approved on 
November 29, 2012.
    This determination of the regulatory review period establishes the 
maximum potential length of a patent extension. However, the USPTO 
applies several statutory limitations in its calculations of the actual 
period for patent extension. In its application for patent extension, 
this applicant seeks 688 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) either electronic or written comments and ask for a 
redetermination by June 22, 2015. 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 October 19, 2015. 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: April 16, 2015.
Leslie Kux,
Associate Commissioner for Policy.
[FR Doc. 2015-09302 Filed 4-21-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4164-01-P