[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 233 (Tuesday, December 4, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62580-62582]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-26290]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Food and Drug Administration

[Docket No. FDA-2017-E-2801]


Determination of Regulatory Review Period for Purposes of Patent 
Extension; ASPIRE ASSIST

AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency) has 
determined the regulatory review period for ASPIRE ASSIST 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 
medical device.

DATES: Anyone with knowledge that any of the dates as published (see 
the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section) are incorrect may submit either 
electronic or written comments and ask for a redetermination by 
February 4, 2019. 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 June 3, 2019. 
See ``Petitions'' in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section for more 
information.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments as follows. Please note that late, 
untimely filed comments will not be considered. Electronic comments 
must be submitted on or before February 4, 2019. The https://www.regulations.gov electronic filing system will accept comments until 
11:59 p.m. Eastern Time at the end of June 3, 2019. Comments received 
by mail/hand delivery/courier (for written/paper submissions) will be 
considered timely if they are postmarked or the delivery service 
acceptance receipt is on or before that date.

Electronic Submissions

    Submit electronic comments in the following way:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Comments submitted 
electronically, including attachments, to https://www.regulations.gov 
will be posted to the docket unchanged. Because your comment will be 
made public, you are solely responsible for ensuring that your comment 
does not include any confidential information that you or a third party 
may not wish to be posted, such as medical information, your or anyone 
else's Social Security number, or confidential business information, 
such as a manufacturing process. Please note that if you include your 
name, contact information, or other information that identifies you in 
the body of your comments, that information will be posted on https://www.regulations.gov.
     If you want to submit a comment with confidential 
information that you do not wish to be made available to the public, 
submit the comment as a written/paper submission and in the manner 
detailed (see ``Written/Paper Submissions'' and ``Instructions'').

Written/Paper Submissions

    Submit written/paper submissions as follows:
     Mail/Hand delivery/Courier (for written/paper 
submissions): Dockets Management Staff (HFA-305), Food and Drug 
Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.
     For written/paper comments submitted to the Dockets 
Management Staff, FDA will post your comment, as well as any 
attachments, except for information submitted, marked and

[[Page 62581]]

identified, as confidential, if submitted as detailed in 
``Instructions.''
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket No. 
FDA-2017-E-2801 for ``Determination of Regulatory Review Period for 
Purposes of Patent Extension; ASPIRE ASSIST.'' Received comments, those 
filed in a timely manner (see ADDRESSES), will be placed in the docket 
and, except for those submitted as ``Confidential Submissions,'' 
publicly viewable at https://www.regulations.gov or at the Dockets 
Management Staff between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
     Confidential Submissions--To submit a comment with 
confidential information that you do not wish to be made publicly 
available, submit your comments only as a written/paper submission. You 
should submit two copies total. One copy will include the information 
you claim to be confidential with a heading or cover note that states 
``THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.'' The Agency will 
review this copy, including the claimed confidential information, in 
its consideration of comments. The second copy, which will have the 
claimed confidential information redacted/blacked out, will be 
available for public viewing and posted on https://www.regulations.gov. 
Submit both copies to the Dockets Management Staff. If you do not wish 
your name and contact information to be made publicly available, you 
can provide this information on the cover sheet and not in the body of 
your comments and you must identify this information as 
``confidential.'' Any information marked as ``confidential'' will not 
be disclosed except in accordance with Sec.  10.20 (21 CFR 10.20) and 
other applicable disclosure law. For more information about FDA's 
posting of comments to public dockets, see 80 FR 56469, September 18, 
2015, or access the information at: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-09-18/pdf/2015-23389.pdf.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
the electronic and written/paper comments received, go to https://www.regulations.gov and insert the docket number, found in brackets in 
the heading of this document, into the ``Search'' box and follow the 
prompts and/or go to the Dockets Management Staff, 5630 Fishers Lane, 
Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Beverly Friedman, Office of Regulatory 
Policy, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 
51, Rm. 6250, Silver Spring, MD 20993, 301-796-3600.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    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 medical devices, the testing 
phase begins with a clinical investigation of the device and runs until 
the approval phase begins. The approval phase starts with the initial 
submission of an application to market the device and continues until 
permission to market the device is granted. Although only a portion of 
a regulatory review period may count toward the actual amount of 
extension that the Director of USPTO may award (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 medical device will include all of the 
testing phase and approval phase as specified in 35 U.S.C. 
156(g)(3)(B).
    FDA has approved for marketing the medical device ASPIRE ASSIST. 
ASPIRE ASSIST is indicated for use in adults aged 22 or older with a 
body mass index (BMI) of 35.0-55.0 kg/m2 who have failed to achieve and 
maintain weight loss with non-surgical weight loss therapy. The ASPIRE 
ASSIST is intended for a long-term duration of use in conjunction with 
lifestyle therapy and continuous medical monitoring. Subsequent to this 
approval, the USPTO received a patent term restoration application for 
ASPIRE ASSIST (U.S. Patent No. 9,039,677) from Aspire Bariatrics, Inc., 
and the USPTO requested FDA's assistance in determining this patent's 
eligibility for patent term restoration. In a letter dated October 16, 
2017, FDA advised the USPTO that this medical device had undergone a 
regulatory review period and that the approval of ASPIRE ASSIST 
represented the first permitted commercial marketing or use of the 
product. Thereafter, the USPTO requested that FDA determine the 
product's regulatory review period.

II. Determination of Regulatory Review Period

    FDA has determined that the applicable regulatory review period for 
ASPIRE ASSIST is 2,785 days. Of this time, 2,444 days occurred during 
the testing phase of the regulatory review period, while 341 days 
occurred during the approval phase. These periods of time were derived 
from the following dates:
    1. The date an exemption under section 520(g) of the Federal Food, 
Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) (21 U.S.C. 360j(g)) involving this 
device became effective: October 31, 2008. The applicant claims that 
the investigational device exemption (IDE) required under section 
520(g) of the FD&C Act for human tests to begin became effective on May 
16, 2012. However, FDA records indicate that the IDE was determined 
substantially complete for clinical studies to have begun on October 
31, 2008, which represents the IDE effective date.
    2. The date an application was initially submitted with respect to 
the device under section 515 of the FD&C Act (21 U.S.C. 360e): July 10, 
2015. The applicant claims July 7, 2015, as the date the premarket 
approval application (PMA) for ASPIRE ASSIST (PMA P150024) was 
initially submitted. However, FDA records indicate that PMA P150024 was 
submitted on July 10, 2015.
    3. The date the application was approved: June 14, 2016. FDA has 
verified the applicant's claim that PMA P150024 was approved on June 
14, 2016.
    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 385 days of patent term extension.

III. Petitions

    Anyone with knowledge that any of the dates as published are 
incorrect may submit either electronic or written comments and, under 
21 CFR 60.24, ask for a redetermination (see DATES). Furthermore, as 
specified in Sec.  60.30 (21 CFR 60.30), any interested person may 
petition FDA for a determination regarding whether the applicant for 
extension acted with due diligence during the regulatory review period. 
To meet its burden, the petition must comply with all the requirements 
of

[[Page 62582]]

Sec.  60.30, including but not limited to: Must be timely (see DATES), 
must be filed in accordance with Sec.  10.20, must contain sufficient 
facts to merit an FDA investigation, and must certify that a true and 
complete copy of the petition has been served upon the patent 
applicant. (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.
    Submit petitions electronically to https://www.regulations.gov at 
Docket No. FDA-2013-S-0610. Submit written petitions (two copies are 
required) to the Dockets Management Staff (HFA-305), Food and Drug 
Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.

    Dated: November 28, 2018.
Leslie Kux,
Associate Commissioner for Policy.
[FR Doc. 2018-26290 Filed 12-3-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4164-01-P