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###### Department of Health and Human Services

###### Food and Drug Administration

          - [Docket No. FDA-2018-D-2614]

# AGENCY:

Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

# ACTION:

Notice of availability.

# SUMMARY:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or Agency) is announcing the availability of a final guidance for industry entitled “Dissolution Testing and Acceptance Criteria for Immediate-Release Solid Oral Dosage Form Drug Products Containing High Solubility Drug Substances.” This guidance has been developed to provide manufacturers with recommendations for submission of new drug applications (NDAs), investigational new drug applications (INDs), or abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs), as appropriate, for orally administered immediate-release (IR) drug products that contain highly soluble drug substances. The guidance is intended to describe when a standard release test and criteria may be used in lieu of extensive method development and acceptance criteria-setting exercises.

# DATES:

                        The announcement of the guidance is published in the                         **Federal Register**                         on August 9, 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:
      -  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 identified, as confidential, if submitted as detailed in “Instructions.”

*Instructions:*                     All submissions received must include the Docket No. FDA-2018-D-2614 for “Dissolution Testing and Acceptance Criteria for Immediate-Release Solid Oral Dosage Form Drug Products Containing High Solubility Drug Substances.” 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 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  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                           ( print page 39449)                        Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10001 New Hampshire Ave., Hillandale Building, 4th Floor, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002. Send one self-addressed adhesive label to assist that office in processing your requests. See the                     **SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION**                     section for electronic access to the guidance document.                

# FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Richard Lostritto, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Bldg. 51, Rm. 4132, Silver Spring, MD 20993, 301-796-1697.

# SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

## I. Background

FDA is announcing the availability of a guidance for industry entitled “Dissolution Testing and Acceptance Criteria for Immediate-Release Solid Oral Dosage Form Drug Products Containing High Solubility Drug Substances.” This guidance finalizes the draft guidance for industry entitled “Dissolution Testing and Specification Criteria for Immediate-Release Solid Oral Dosage Forms Containing Biopharmaceutics Classification System Class 1 and 3 Drugs” (August 2015) (FR 80 46019), and the recommendations in this guidance clarify the recommendations in the guidance for industry entitled “Dissolution Testing of Immediate Release Solid Oral Dosage Forms” (August 1997) (FR 62 44974) for high solubility drug substances in IR drug products that meet the conditions described in section III of this guidance. For drug substances that do not meet the conditions in this guidance, sponsors/applicants should follow the recommendations provided in the August 1997 guidance.

The title of this guidance has been revised to better reflect its focus on the solubility of the drug substance in the drug product. Therefore, a direct reference to biopharmaceutics classification system class 1 and class 3 is not necessary because permeability requirements are not within the focus of this guidance.

Drug absorption from a solid dosage form after oral administration depends on the release of the drug substance from the drug product, the dissolution or solubilization of the drug under physiological conditions, and the permeation across the gastrointestinal membrane. NDAs and ANDAs submitted to FDA contain bioavailability (BA) or bioequivalence (BE) data and in vitro dissolution data that, together with chemistry, manufacturing, and controls data, characterize the quality and performance of the drug product. In vitro dissolution data are generally obtained from: (1) Batches used in pivotal clinical and/or BA/BE studies, (2) batches used as stability registration batches, and (3) batches used in other human studies conducted during product development. In general, knowledge about the solubility, permeability, dissolution, and pharmacokinetics of a drug product is considered when defining dissolution acceptance criteria for the drug approval process.

Immediate-release solid oral dosage form drug products containing high solubility drug substances are considered to be relatively low risk regarding the impact of dissolution on in vivo performance, provided the in vitro performance meets or exceeds the recommendations discussed within this guidance. This guidance establishes standard dissolution methodology and acceptance criteria that are appropriate for highly soluble drug substances that are formulated in IR dosage form. The availability of these standards will facilitate the rapid development of dissolution methodology and related acceptance criteria with no requirement to show discriminatory ability of the dissolution method for these products during drug product development. In addition, these standards will facilitate FDA's evaluation of the data submitted in the application.

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 “Dissolution Testing and Acceptance Criteria for Immediate-Release Solid Oral Dosage Form Drug Products Containing High Solubility Drug Substances.” 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. Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995

This guidance refers to previously approved collections of information that are subject to review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520). The collections of information in 21 CFR parts 312 and 314 have been approved under OMB control numbers 0910-0014 and 0910-0001, respectively.

## III. Electronic Access

                    Persons with access to the internet may obtain the guidance at either                     *https://www.fda.gov/​Drugs/​GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/​Guidances/​default.htm*                     or                     *https://www.regulations.gov.*

Dated: August 3, 2018.

Leslie Kux,

Associate Commissioner for Policy.

[FR Doc. 2018-17025 Filed 8-8-18; 8:45 am]

 BILLING CODE 4164-01-P