[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 41 (Thursday, February 29, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14849-14851]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-04229]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Food and Drug Administration

[Docket Nos. FDA-2022-E-2261, FDA-2022-E-2262, and FDA-2022-E-2263]


Determination of Regulatory Review Period for Purposes of Patent 
Extension; PREVNAR-20

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 PREVNAR-20 and is 
publishing this notice of that determination as required by law. FDA 
has made the determination because of the submission of applications to 
the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), 
Department of Commerce, for the extension of a patent which claims that 
human biological product.

DATES: Anyone with knowledge that any of the dates as published (see 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION) are incorrect may submit either electronic 
or written comments and ask for a redetermination by April 29, 2024. 
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 August 27, 2024. 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. The https://www.regulations.gov electronic filing system will accept comments until 
11:59 p.m. Eastern Time at the end of April 29, 2024. Comments received 
by mail/hand delivery/courier (for written/paper submissions) will be 
considered timely if they are received on or before that date.

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,

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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 Nos. 
FDA-2022-E-2261, FDA-2022-E-2262, and FDA-2022-E-2263 for 
``Determination of Regulatory Review Period for Purposes of Patent 
Extension; PREVNAR-20.'' 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, 240-402-7500.
    <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 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.govinfo.gov/content/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, 240-402-7500.

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 or biologic 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 USPTO 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 has approved for marketing the human biologic product PREVNAR-
20 (Pneumococcal 20-valent Conjugate Vaccine). PREVNAR-20 is indicated 
for:
    <bullet> Active immunization for the prevention of invasive disease 
caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes 1, 3, 4, 5, 6A, 6B, 7F, 8, 
9V, 10A, 11A, 12F, 14, 15B, 18C, 19A, 19F, 22F, 23F, and 33F in 
individuals 6 weeks of age and older.
    <bullet> Active immunization for the prevention of otitis media 
caused by S. pneumoniae serotypes 4, 6B, 9V, 14, 18C, 19F, and 23F in 
individuals 6 weeks through 5 years of age.
    <bullet> Active immunization for the prevention of pneumonia caused 
by S. pneumoniae serotypes 1, 3, 4, 5, 6A, 6B, 7F, 8, 9V, 10A, 11A, 
12F, 14, 15B, 18C, 19A, 19F, 22F, 23F, and 33F in individuals 18 years 
of age and older.
    The indication for the prevention of pneumonia caused by S. 
pneumoniae serotypes 8, 10A, 11A, 12F, 15B, 22F, and 33F in individuals 
18 years of age and older is approved under accelerated approval based 
on immune responses as measured by opsonophagocytic activity assay. 
Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon 
verification and description of clinical benefit in a confirmatory 
trial.
    Subsequent to this approval, the USPTO received patent term 
restoration applications for PREVNAR-20 (U.S. Patent No. 7,935,787) 
from Wyeth LLC, and (U.S. Patent Nos. 9,517,274; and 9,950,054), filed 
by Pfizer Inc., and the USPTO requested FDA's assistance in determining 
the patents' eligibility for patent term restoration. In a letter dated 
January 18, 2023, FDA advised the USPTO that this human biological 
product had undergone a regulatory review period and that the approval 
of PREVNAR-20 represented the first permitted commercial marketing or 
use of the product. Thereafter, the USPTO requested that FDA determine 
the product's regulatory review period.

[[Page 14851]]

II. Determination of Regulatory Review Period

    FDA has determined that the applicable regulatory review period for 
PREVNAR-20 is 1,678 days. Of this time, 1,434 days occurred during the 
testing phase of the regulatory review period, while 244 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: November 5, 
2016. FDA has verified the applicant's claim that the date the 
investigational new drug application became effective was on November 
5, 2016.
    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): October 8, 2020. FDA has verified the 
applicant's claim that the biologics license application (BLA) for 
PREVNAR-20 (BLA 125731) was initially submitted on October 8, 2020.
    3. The date the application was approved: June 8, 2021. FDA has 
verified the applicant's claim that BLA 125731 was approved on June 8, 
2021.
    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 applications for patent extension, 
these applicants seek 665 days or 961 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 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: February 23, 2024.
Lauren K. Roth,
Associate Commissioner for Policy.
[FR Doc. 2024-04229 Filed 2-28-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4164-01-P