Samantha Hoopes, PhD, RAC is an Integrated Product Development Associate at Rho involved in clinical operations management and regulatory submissions. Samantha has over 10 years of scientific writing and editing experience and has served as lead author on clinical and regulatory documents for product development programs for a variety of therapeutic areas.
David Shoemaker, PhD, Senior Vice President R&D, has extensive experience in the preparation and filing of all types of regulatory submissions including primary responsibility for four BLAs and three NDAs. He has managed or contributed to more than two dozen NDAs, BLAs, and MAAs and has moderated dozens of regulatory authority meetings.
On 29 December 2017, the FDA released a revised draft guidance “Formal Meetings Between the FDA and Sponsors or Applicants of PDUFA Products.” This draft guidance will replace the previous draft guidance posted in 2015 on this topic. According to the draft guidance, from this point in time there will be 4 types of formal meetings with FDA staff:
- Type A
- Type B
- Type B (end of phase [EOP])
- Type C
An overview of each type of meeting and the changes from the previous version of the draft guidance are highlighted below:
A Type A meeting is necessary for a stalled product development program (at the behest of FDA) to proceed or to address an important safety issue. Meetings of this type include dispute resolution meetings, meetings to discuss clinical holds, special protocol assessment resolution meetings, and post-action meetings requested within 3 months after an FDA regulatory action other than approval (i.e. complete response letter). In the revised draft guidance, meetings requested within 30 days of FDA issuance of a refuse-to-file letter were also designated as Type A meetings. For Type A meetings, FDA will aim to respond to a meeting request letter within 14 calendar days of receipt. If a Type A meeting is granted, the meeting will be scheduled or a written responses only (WRO) communication will be sent within 30 calendar days from FDA receipt of the meeting request letter. The requester must submit the Type A meeting package at the same time the meeting request letter is submitted and the FDA aims to provide preliminary responses no later than 2 calendar days prior to the scheduled meeting.
Type B meetings include: pre-investigational new drug application (pre-IND) meetings, pre-emergency use authorization meetings, pre-new drug application (pre-NDA)/pre-biologics license application (pre BLA) meetings, post-action meetings requested 3 or more months after an FDA regulatory action other than approval, meetings regarding risk evaluation and mitigation strategies of postmarketing requirements that occur outside the context of the review of a marketing application, and meetings held to discuss the overall development program for products granted breakthrough therapy designation status. With the release of the revised draft guidance EOP1 and EOP2 (pre-phase 3) meetings no longer fall within this meeting category. The FDA will aim to respond to requests for Type B meetings within 21 calendar days of receipt. If the meeting is granted, the meeting will be scheduled or alternatively if the meeting is not granted WRO communication may be sent within 60 calendar days from FDA receipt of the meeting request. The requester must submit the Type B meeting package no later than 30 days before the scheduled date of the meeting or WRO communication. The FDA aims to provide preliminary responses no later than 2 calendar days prior to the scheduled meeting.
The revised draft guidance introduces a new category of meetings, Type B (EOP) meetings, which will include EOP1 meetings for certain products that will be considered for marketing approval under 21 CFR part 12, subpart E (Hearing Procedures), or 21 CFR part 314, subpart H (Accelerated Approval of New Drugs for Serious or Life-Threatening Illnesses; Guidance for Industry Expedited Programs for Serious Conditions – Drugs and Biologics), and EOP2 meetings. The FDA will aim to respond to requests for Type B (EOP) meetings within 14 calendar days of receipt. If granted, a meeting will be scheduled or WRO communication will be sent within 70 calendar days of FDA receipt of the request. The requester must submit the Type B (EOP) meeting package no later than 50 days before the scheduled date of the meeting or WRO response time. As compared with Type B meetings, the FDA will aim to respond quicker to a Type B (EOP) meeting request; however, there will be a longer timeframe for scheduling the meeting and meeting packages will need to be sent in sooner due to the time required for FDA to review the greater volume of information contained in these meeting packages. The FDA aims to provide preliminary responses no later than 5 calendars prior to the meeting and the requester should respond to the FDA within 3 calendar days after receiving the preliminary responses stating whether the meeting is still needed and providing an updated agenda including any questions that still require discussion.
A Type C meeting is any meeting other than a Type A, Type B, or Type B (EOP) meeting regarding the development and review of a product. The revised draft guidance expanded this definition to specifically include meetings to facilitate early consultations on the use of a biomarker as a new surrogate endpoint that has never been previously used as the primary basis for product approval in the proposed context of use. The FDA will aim to respond to meeting request letters for a Type C meeting within 21 calendar days of receipt. If granted, a meeting will be scheduled or WRO communication will be sent within 75 calendar days of FDA receipt of the meeting request letter. The revised draft guidance also specifies that meeting packages for Type C meetings that are requested as early consultations on the use of a new surrogate endpoint must be submitted at the time the meeting request is submitted while all other Type C meeting packages must now be submitted no later than 47 days before the scheduled date of the meeting or WRO response time. According to the revised draft guidance, the FDA now aims to provide preliminary responses 5 calendar days prior to a scheduled Type C meeting and requires the requester to respond within 3 calendar days after receipt of FDA’s preliminary responses.
A summary of this information is provided in the table below (Appendix Formal Meetings Between the FDA and Sponsors or Applicants of PDUFA Products).
| Meeting Type | FDA Response to Request | FDA Reciept of Meeting Package | FDA Preliminary Responses to Requester (if applicable†) | Requester Response to FDA Preliminary Response (if applicable†) | FDA Scheduled Meeting Date (days from receipt of request) | FDA Meeting Minutes to Requester (if applicable†) |
| A | 14 days | With meeting request | No later than 2 days before meeting | — | Within 30 days | 30 days after meeting |
| B | 21 days | No later than 30 days before meeting | No later than 2 days before meeting | — | Within 60 days | 30 days after meeting |
| B (EOP)* | 14 days | No later than 50 days before meeting** | No later than 5 days before meeting | No later than 3 days after receipt of preliminary responses | Within 70 days | 30 days after meeting |
| C | 21 days | No later than 47 days before meeting*** | No later than 5 days before meeting | No later than 3 days after receipt of preliminary responses | Within 75 days | 30 days after meeting |
†Not applicable to written response only.
* EOP = end of phase
** If the scheduled date of a Type B (EOP) meeting is earlier than 70 days from FDA receipt of the meeting request, the requester’s meeting package will be due no sooner than 6 calendar days after FDA response time for issuing the letter granting the meeting (see Table 1 in section VI.B., Meeting Granted).
*** If the scheduled date of a Type C meeting is earlier than 75 days from FDA receipt of the meeting request, the meeting package will be due no sooner than 7 calendar days after FDA response time for issuing the letter granting the meeting (see Table 1 in section VI.B., Meeting Granted). Note that for Type C meetings that are requested as early consultations on the use of a new surrogate endpoint to be used as the primary basis for product approval in a proposed context of use, the meeting package is due at the time of the meeting request.
Consistent with the draft guidance from 2015, each meeting type consists of 3 different formats: face-to-face, teleconference/videoconference, and written response only (WRO) and the FDA will issue finalized meeting minutes within 30 calendar days after any type of meeting. The revised guidance still notes that requesters should attempt to combine product development issues into the fewest possible meetings. Information pertaining to the content of a meeting request letter and meeting package is also outlined in the revised draft guidance. According to the Federal Register, comments should be submitted on this revised draft guidance by 29 March 2018.
An additional related resource includes the recently finalized guidance outlining the“Best Practices for Communication Between IND Sponsors and FDA During Drug Development.”