FDA Evaluation of Medication Essay

During Phase 1, sufficient information about the drug’s pharmacokinetics and pharmacological effects should be obtained to permit the design of well-controlled, scientifically valid, Phase 2 studies.

The United Sates Food and Drug Administration has been protecting American consumers for around 70 years. The FDA assures the safety drugs, medical devices, chemicals, cosmetics, foods and additives by evaluating products for approval. Controversy has recently been surrounding the FDA's drug approval process, due to a general trend to get pharmaceuticals on the market more quickly. The FDA has been under pressure from congress and the public to speed approval, but pharmaceutical companies, who benefit more than anyone form accelerated drug approval, have also been applying pressure to the FDA through congress. The speeding of the approval process helps patients with incurable illnesses

Each and every member of the team will understand the science behind the clinical trial provides significant background for the tasks that will be allocated and related decisions will be considered. We will take help from medical monitor or other suitable expert to arrange an outline of the therapeutic part and sign, to talk about the specific mechanisms pertinent to the manufactured goods being evaluated, and to talk about earlier and rival trials that may offer context to our

During this phase the drug is considered and the talk of different dosage, patients and longevity of use is looked over. After phase three the drug is written up again in as a new drug application and is filed to the FDA in which they have 60 days to review and submit in order for this drug to get out. Following there are different steps of approval determining the severity of need for the drug and its underlying benefits. In most cases it will take some time and scrutinizing of the FDA’s review team before the drug can be released, but under certain circumstances drugs may be approved for release without the sponsors showing its safety and true effectiveness. This process is called “accelerated approval” in which if there are very few cures for a certain disease or none at all then a drug can be approved for use, it will be reviewed and possibly withdrawn but just the act of allowing such a thing to occur yet again should not sit well with most. The most recent example of this would be studies shown of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in which they released a drug that barely passed phase two. They call it in these dire circumstances a “surrogate endpoint” almost as if the patient is already dying so the outcome, good or bad is ok as long as they see the effectiveness of this drug. In concluding the process of review it appears that there is a great system of checks and balances and a great deal of care put in to the

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that is responsible for assuring the safety, efficiency, and quality of drugs and vaccines. In America a drug must first be evaluated by the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), which is a division of the FDA, before it gets approved for sale. This means that the department must make sure that the medicine been evaluated works properly and that its health benefits are greater than its identified risks. A company or a sponsor that is introducing the new drug initially performs a laboratory and animal tests to determine the safety and the effectiveness of the drug in humans. Once this step is successfully completed, several tests are implemented in people to confirm that the drug is safe when used to treat a disease and whether it provides a real health benefit. Finally, results of the tests that prove the safety and the effectiveness of the treatment are sent to the CDER. After a group of experts at CDER reviews the submitted evidence and ensures that the medicine's health benefits surpass its known risks, the drug can then be sold around the US (Development & Approval Process (Drugs), 2014).

One contributing factor is the cost of research and development required to bring a new drug to market. In order to be approved by the FDA, a drug must go through phase 0, I, II, and III processes. Phase 0 involves animal testing, phase I is small scale clinical studies to determine safety, phase II is clinical studies to determine effectiveness,

FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) works to ensure that the drugs release in the market are safe to be used by general public. They evaluate prescription as well as non-prescription drugs for their safety effectiveness and quality. They review the drug before being marketed to improve overall health

(Adams M. , 2013). ?Before a drug is introduced, regulators demand controlled clinical trials (on carefully selected homogeneous samples); but, once a drug is widely in service, they fail to engage in systematic monitoring of what happens in everyday clinical practice, with ?real? patients.? (May, 2004).

To better understand the issues associated with the prescription drug industry, it would first be best to understand their development and approval process. For a new drug to enter the market, it must first undergo a lengthy and often expensive research and development. Once a company submits an application for a new drug, it is their responsibility to provide the evidence showing its safety and effectiveness. Until they have undergone these criteria of guidelines and standards set in place, they will not receive FDA approval.

The first step in developing a drug is pre-clinical testing. The experimental drug is tested in a laboratory and in animal studies. The drug has to meet safety standards and show potential for being a new drug. If this criterion is met, the drug moves on to the next phase. Phase 1 is concentrated on making sure the drug is safe to use on humans. This is the first time the experimental drug is used on people. Different measures of dosages of the drug are given to a small number of the volunteers. This allows the researchers to be able to measure the body’s response to the drug. The things they measure include how the drug is absorbed, its duration in the bloodstream, and what dosage levels are safe and well accepted by the body. If the experimental drug is deemed safe, it passes on to Phase 2 (Phases of Development, par. 6-7).

Before an investigational study on a new drug may take place, research subjects must submit informed consent and informed of all possible risks and benefits of the therapy. There are four types of phases associated with investigational studies that may occur. Beginning with the first phase, a Phase I study consist of few healthy participants who do not have the disease that the certain drug is said to treat. The purpose of this phase is to determine the optimal dosage range and the pharmacokinetics of the drug and if further testing of the drug is necessary. Vital signs, blood tests, urinary analysis, and other specific monitoring exams are performed. The next phase, Phase II, also involves a relatively small number of participants who this time have the disease that the drug is designed to treat. Participants are closely monitored to determine the effects and adverse

Module 3 deals with the quality concepts of the drug which has been detailed in the form of ICH guidance document M4Q. Similarly, Module 4 deals with the safety concepts of the drug which has been detailed in the form of ICH guidance document M4S; while Module 5 deals with the efficacy concepts of the drug which has been detailed in the form of ICH guidance document M4E. In summary, Module 2 contains a table of contents enlisting the location of the various sections, subsections; an introduction that mentions the pharmacological class, mode of action and the proposed clinical use of the drug; an quality overall summary briefly summarizing and highlighting major points of all that is mentioned under Module 3. It further contains a clinical and non-clinical overview and summary where a brief summary and tabulation of clinical and non-clinical data as mentioned under Module 4 and 5 respectively is covered. Various sections of Module 2 have different page limitations, but most importantly every section is a summary of more detailed aspects (quality, safety and efficacy) of the

Due to the fact that because drug trials were poorly regulated in the early 1970’s Phase I research was conducted on prisoners. The FDA was granted authority to monitor research that involved humans in the 1978; at which time, the FDA ordered each institution to devise an Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB was to generate and monitor the rules of the trials on all studies done within the universality. The IRB was comprised of faculty members who volunteered to evaluate their colleagues’ studies. Unfortunately, before 2005, FDA inspectors’ primary focus was on verifying the clinical trial data, not the human subjects involved in them.

As mentioned in class, as well as in the required Krishna (2008) article, the drug development and approval process is an extensive and costly endeavor. The goal of experimental medicine is to increase the efficiency of drug development by providing a better understanding of the drug’s mechanism(s) of action, dose response, efficacy, and safety, allowing the process to be accelerated for the most promising and efficacious candidates (Krishna, Herman, & Wagner, 2008).

After all research has been conducted including the testing of all animal and human studies associated, the New Drug application is completed by the drug developer. The results provided are used by the FDA to determine whether the drug is approved or the recommendation of further testing. Finally phase four is based on the monitoring of the drug’s risks and benefits monitored by various sponsors hired by the FDA.