A new BIO survey finds that more drug sponsors are not seeking special protocol assessment for drug development because they do not believe it improves their chances of getting a product approved. (The survey represents 165 companies and 240 individual clinical development programs.)
According to BIO’s Executive VP for Emerging Companies Section, Cartier Esham, “The reason cited is that they don’t see any objective evidence that utilization is improving chances of success.”
Question: Does that speak to a problem with the pathway or in the design of any given clinical program? One cannot be blamed for the other. SPAs were never meant to promise speed-to-market. Could it be a case of inappropriate sponsor expectations? Just asking.
BIO’s survey also found that the majority of respondents have not utilized FDA’s enhanced communications program, and that the reason people give for not using the program is that they are not aware of its existence or what purpose it serves.
Really? Or is the reason that what the program offers isn’t what sponsors want – or want most – direct communications with their agency review team.
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometime you just might find
You get what you need.
And, according to the BIO survey, smaller companies often don’t take advantage of FDA meeting opportunities. That’s truly unfortunate since the FDA said its own analysis shows that companies that have milestone meetings with the agency across all phases of development experience shorter clinical development (by a year or more) than those that did not engage at all milestones.
Blame the FDA? What about blaming shortsighted corporate regulatory strategies?
