Document Headings

                    Document headings vary by document type but may contain                    the following:                  
                -                       the agency or agencies that issued and signed a document                    
                -                       the number of the CFR title and the number of each part                      the document amends, proposes to amend, or is directly                      related to                    
                -                       the agency docket number / agency internal file number                    
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###### Department of Health and Human Services

###### Food and Drug Administration 

          - [Docket No. 2006E-0260] 

# AGENCY: 

 Food and Drug Administration, HHS. 

# ACTION: 

 Notice. 

# SUMMARY: 

                         The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined the regulatory review period for ORENCIA 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                               ( print page 28979)                            which claims that human biological 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 biological products, the testing phase begins when the exemption to permit the clinical investigations of the biological 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 biological product and continues until FDA grants permission to market the biological 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 biological 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 biological product ORENCIA (abatacept). ORENCIA is indicated for reducing signs and symptoms, inducing major clinical response, slowing the progression of structural damage, and improving physical function in adult patients with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis who have had an inadequate response to one or more disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, such as methotrexate or TNF antagonists. Subsequent to this approval, the Patent and Trademark Office received a patent term restoration application for ORENCIA (U.S. Patent No. 5,851,795) from Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, and the Patent and Trademark Office requested FDA's assistance in determining this patent's eligibility for patent term restoration. In a letter dated September 5, 2006, FDA advised the Patent and Trademark Office that this human biological product had undergone a regulatory review period and that the approval of ORENCIA 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 ORENCIA is 3,803 days. Of this time, 3,536 days occurred during the testing phase of the regulatory review period, while 267 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 (21 U.S.C. 355(i)) became effective*: July 28, 1995. FDA has verified the applicant's claim that the date the investigational new drug application became effective was on July 28, 1995.                 

                    2.                     *The date the application was initially submitted with respect to the human biological product under section 351 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 262)*: April 1, 2005. The applicant claims March 31, 2005, as the date the biologics license application (BLA) for ORENCIA (BLA 125118) was submitted. However, FDA records indicate that BLA 125118 was received on April 1, 2005.                 

                    3.                     *The date the application was approved*: December 23, 2005. FDA has verified the applicant's claim that BLA 125118 was approved on December 23, 2005.                 

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 1,414 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 July 23, 2007. 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 19, 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: May 2, 2007 

Jane A. Axelrad, 

Associate Director for Policy, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. 

[FR Doc. E7-9945 Filed 5-22-07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4160-01-S