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FDA Seeks Comment on draft Clinical Trials Guidance Document
On September 3, 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that an important new draft guidance document was available for comment. The draft guidance is entitled entitled ``M3(R2) Nonclinical Safety Studies for the Conduct of Human Clinical Trials and Marketing Authorization for Pharmaceuticals.'' It was prepared under the auspices of the International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH).

ICH is concerned with harmonization of technical requirements for the registration of pharmaceutical products among three regions: The European Union, Japan, and the United States. The six ICH sponsors are the European Commission; the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries Associations; the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare; the Japanese Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association; the Centers for Drug Evaluation and Research and Biologics Evaluation and Research, FDA; and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. The ICH Secretariat, which coordinates the preparation of documentation, is provided by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (IFPMA).

The draft guidance, which is a revision of existing guidance, discusses the types of nonclinical studies, their scope and duration, and their relation to the conduct of human clinical trials and marketing authorization for pharmaceuticals. The draft guidance is intended to facilitate the timely conduct of clinical trials and reduce the unnecessary use of animals and other drug development resources.

The public can comment on FDA guidance documents at any time. However, the FDA requests on the draft guidance document by October 20, 2008.

Click here to read the FDA’s notice of the draft guidance document