[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 139 (Thursday, July 19, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34139-34140]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-15395]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Food and Drug Administration

[Docket No. FDA-2016-D-2567]


E17 General Principles for Planning and Design of Multiregional 
Clinical Trials; International Council for Harmonisation; Guidance for 
Industry; Availability

AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or Agency) is announcing 
the availability of a final guidance entitled ``E17 General Principles 
for Planning and Design of Multiregional Clinical Trials.'' The 
guidance was prepared under the auspices of the International Council 
for Harmonisation (ICH), formerly the International Conference on 
Harmonisation. The guidance describes general principles for planning 
and designing multiregional clinical trials (MRCTs). The guidance is 
intended to increase the acceptability of data from MRCTs as the 
primary source of evidence supporting marketing approval in global 
regulatory submissions and thereby facilitate more efficient drug 
development and earlier access to medicines.

DATES: The announcement of the guidance is published in the Federal 
Register on July 19, 2018.

ADDRESSES: You may submit either electronic or written comments on 
Agency guidances at any time as follows:

Electronic Submissions

    Submit electronic comments in the following way:
    <bullet> 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.
    <bullet> 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:
    <bullet> 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.
    <bullet> 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 identified, 
as confidential, if submitted as detailed in ``Instructions.''
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket No. 
FDA-2016-D-2567 for ``E17 General Principles for Planning and Design of 
Multiregional Clinical Trials; International Council for 
Harmonisation.'' Received comments 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 office between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
    <bullet> 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

[[Page 34140]]

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 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.
    You may submit comments on any guidance at any time (see 21 CFR 
10.115(g)(5)).
    Submit written requests for single copies of this guidance to the 
Division of Drug Information, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, 
Food and Drug Administration, 10001 New Hampshire Ave., Hillandale 
Building, 4th Floor, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002, or the Office of 
Communication, Outreach and Development, Center for Biologics 
Evaluation and Research (CBER), Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New 
Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 71, Rm. 3128, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002. Send 
one self-addressed adhesive label to assist that office in processing 
your requests. The guidance may also be obtained by mail by calling 
CBER at 1-800-835-4709 or 240-402-8010. See the SUPPLEMENTARY 
INFORMATION section for electronic access to the guidance document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 
    Regarding the guidance: Aloka Chakravarty, Center for Drug 
Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New 
Hampshire Ave, Bldg. 21, Rm. 3514, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002, 301-
796-1655; or R. Douglas Pratt, Center for Biologics Evaluation and 
Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 
71, Rm. G112, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002, 301-796-2640.
    Regarding the ICH: Amanda Roache, Center for Drug Evaluation and 
Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 
51, Rm. 1176, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002, 301-796-4548.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    In recent years, regulatory authorities and industry associations 
from around the world have participated in many important initiatives 
to promote international harmonization of regulatory requirements under 
the ICH. FDA has participated in several ICH meetings designed to 
enhance harmonization and FDA is committed to seeking scientifically 
based harmonized technical procedures for pharmaceutical development. 
One of the goals of harmonization is to identify and reduce differences 
in technical requirements for drug development among regulatory 
agencies.
    ICH was established to provide an opportunity for harmonization 
initiatives to be developed with input from both regulatory and 
industry representatives. FDA also seeks input from consumer 
representatives and others. ICH is concerned with harmonization of 
technical requirements for the registration of pharmaceutical products 
for human use among regulators around the world. The six founding 
members of the ICH are the European Commission; the European Federation 
of Pharmaceutical Industries Associations; the FDA; the Japanese 
Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare; the Japanese Pharmaceutical 
Manufacturers Association; and the Pharmaceutical Research and 
Manufacturers of America. The Standing Members of the ICH Association 
include Health Canada and Swissmedic. Any party eligible as a Member in 
accordance with the ICH Articles of Association can apply for 
membership in writing to the ICH Secretariat. The ICH Secretariat, 
which coordinates the preparation of documentation, operates as an 
international nonprofit organization and is funded by the Members of 
the ICH Association.
    The ICH Assembly is the overarching body of the Association and 
includes representatives from each of the ICH members and observers. 
The Assembly is responsible for the endorsement of draft guidelines and 
adoption of final guidelines. FDA publishes ICH guidelines as FDA 
guidance.
    In the Federal Register of September 9, 2016 (81 FR 62506), FDA 
published a notice announcing the availability of a draft guidance 
entitled ``E17 General Principles for Planning and Design of Multi-
Regional Clinical Trials.'' The notice gave interested persons an 
opportunity to submit comments by November 8, 2016.
    After consideration of the comments received and revisions to the 
guideline, a final draft of the guideline was submitted to the ICH 
Assembly and endorsed by the regulatory agencies in November 2017.
    The guidance provides guidance on general principles for planning 
and designing MRCTs. MRCTs conducted according to the guidance will 
investigate treatment effects in overall populations with multiple 
ethnic factors (intrinsic and extrinsic factors as described in 
Appendix A of the ICH guidance entitled ``E5 Ethnic Factors in the 
Acceptability of Foreign Clinical Data'') and evaluate the consistency 
of treatment effects across populations. The guidance explicitly states 
that MRCTs are planned under the assumption that the treatment effect 
applies to the entire target population, particularly to the regions 
included in the trial. The concept of ``consistency of treatment 
effect'' across regions is defined in the text and in the glossary, and 
the terms ``pooled populations'' and ``pooled regions'' are also added 
to the glossary. The guidance further clarifies that prespecified 
strategies for pooling regions and/or subpopulations provide 
flexibility in sample-size allocation to regions, and that the 
strategies facilitate the assessment of consistency in treatment 
effects across regions.
    This guidance is being issued consistent with FDA's good guidance 
practices regulation (21 CFR 10.115). The guidance represents the 
current thinking of FDA on ``E17 General Principles for Planning and 
Design of Multiregional Clinical Trials.'' It does not establish any 
rights for any person and is not binding on FDA or the public. You can 
use an alternative approach if it satisfies the requirements of the 
applicable statutes and regulations. This guidance is not subject to 
Executive Order 12866.

II. Electronic Access

    Persons with access to the internet may obtain the document at 
https://www.regulations.gov, https://www.fda.gov/Drugs/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/Guidances/default.htm, or 
https://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/Guidances/default.htm.

    Dated: July 13, 2018.
Leslie Kux,
Associate Commissioner for Policy.
[FR Doc. 2018-15395 Filed 7-18-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4164-01-P