1. Pink Sheet
  2. >>Product Reviews
  3. >>Complete Response Letters

2018 Complete Response Letters: Efficacy Issues Drove Most Product Rejections

 
• By Michael Cipriano

US FDA issued at least seven rejections to novel products; opioid analgesic sponsors had very little success, while biosimilar developers had a so-so year.

Rejected stamp

Complete response letters (CRLs) for novel products in 2018 didn't prevent the US FDA's year-end novel approval count from reaching a historic high, but a lack of evidence of efficacy appeared to be the chief culprit for new molecular entities (NMEs) and new biological entities (NBEs) being derailed.

Sponsors publicly announced the receipt of nine CRLs for novel products in 2018, more than half of which appear to have

Read the full article – start your free trial today!

Join thousands of industry professionals who rely on Pink Sheet for daily insights

  • Start your 7-day free trial
  • Explore trusted news, analysis, and insights
  • Access comprehensive global coverage
  • Enjoy instant access – no credit card required
Start Free Trial

Already a subscriber?

More from Complete Response Letters

Another Regeneron CRL Prompts Regulatory Operations Questions

 
• By Alaric DeArment

CEO Len Schleifer said during the company’s first quarter earnings call that most of the complete response letters the company has received related to third-party suppliers, not efficacy or safety.

US FDA Miss On Stealth’s Elamipretide Boosts Signal Of Broader Delays Due To Staff Cuts

 
• By Sue Sutter

Failing to meet the 29 April user fee date for the Barth syndrome treatment, and CDER’s request for a delay in responding to Vanda’s appeal of a tradipitant complete response letter, suggest a slowdown in review work due to layoffs and other recent changes.

US FDA’s Review Performance Held Steady Despite Stormy First Quarter

 
• By Bridget Silverman

Organizational turmoil has not yet affected reviews of novel agent applications, with Q1 2025 approvals coming in low, but the first quarter share of the entire year is variable.

Elevar/Hengrui’s Second US CRL A Bad Omen For Multiregional Trials In Asia-Dominant Cancers?

 
• By Dexter Jie Yan

While CMC glitches linger over a US NDA for Elevar/Hengrui’s novel liver cancer combination following a second complete response letter, the separate issue of underrepresentation of US patients in multiregional trials is looming large after new FDA draft guidance last year.

More from Product Reviews

Opioid Safety: US FDA Hears Mixed Messages On Adding Posmarketing Studies To Labeling

 
• By Sue Sutter

Some advisory committee members said adding quantitative data on misuse, abuse, opioid use disorder and overdose to labeling would be helpful, but others worried the two epidemiological studies were not sufficiently generalizable to a broader population.

How Tumult At US FDA Could Impact Merger and Acquisition Strategy

 
• By Joseph Haas and Nielsen Hobbs

With review and development uncertainly increasing, "it’s going to take longer for certain targets … to progress to a place where they’ve been derisked enough that big pharma is ready to write a big check," said Andrew Goodman of Paul Hastings.

US FDA Asks Adcomm If Opioid Postmarketing Studies Are Relevant, Warrant Action

 
• By Sue Sutter

Two US FDA advisory committees will discuss results from epidemiological studies that attempted to quantify the prevalence, incidence and risk factors for misuse, abuse, overdose and death with opioid analgesics.