Company: AGIO
Filing Date: 2025-02-13
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001439222-25-000009
Chunk: 90

Company: AGIOS PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-02-13
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 90
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 also require companies to perform additional studies or measurements to support the change from the approved product. The FDA may then approve the new drug candidate for all or some of the label indications for which the referenced product has been approved, as well as for any new indication sought by the Section 505(b)(2) sponsor.

Generic Drugs and Regulatory Exclusivity

The Hatch-Waxman Amendments to the FDCA authorize the FDA to approve generic drugs that are shown to contain the same active ingredients as, and to be bioequivalent to, drugs previously approved by the FDA pursuant to NDAs. Such previously approved drugs are known as the reference listed drugs, or RLDs. Abbreviated new drug applications, or ANDAs, for generic drugs generally do not include preclinical and clinical data to demonstrate safety and effectiveness. Instead, the sponsor may rely on the preclinical and clinical testing previously conducted for the RLD. 

Under the Hatch-Waxman Act, the FDA may not approve an ANDA or 505(b)(2) application until any applicable period of non-patent exclusivity for the RLD has expired. The FDCA provides a period of five years of regulatory exclusivity for a new drug containing a new chemical entity, or NCE. For the purposes of this provision, an NCE is a drug that contains no active moiety that has previously been approved by the FDA in any other NDA. An active moiety is the molecule or ion responsible for the physiological or pharmacological action of the drug substance. In cases where such NCE exclusivity has been granted, a generic or follow-on drug application may not be filed with the FDA until the expiration of five years unless the submission is accompanied by a Paragraph IV certification, in which case the sponsor may submit its application four years following the original product approval.

The FDCA also provides for a period of three years of regulatory exclusivity if the NDA includes reports of one or more new clinical trials, other than bioavailability or bioequivalence studies, that were conducted by or for the sponsor and are essential to the approval of the application. This three-year exclusivity period often protects changes to a previously approved drug product, such as new indications, dosage forms, route of administration, combination of ingredients. Three-year exclusivity would be available for a drug product that contains a previously approved active moiety, provided the statutory requirement for a new clinical trial is satisfied. Unlike five-year NCE exclusivity, an award of three-year exclusivity does not block the FDA from accepting