Last Thursday, October 25th, I attended the FDA’s Patient-Focused Drug Development public meeting in Washington, DC. This meeting was required by the recently passed FDASIA/PDUFA-V legislation (see Abbreviation Decoder at end of post) and requires the FDA to hold 20 disease-specific meetings over the next 5 years to discuss topics such as:
“the impact of the disease on patients, the spectrum of severity for those who have the disease, the measures of benefit that matter most to patients, and the adequacy of the existing treatment options for patients.”
There were about 150 people in attendance and just over two dozen of us gave public testimony. The FDA is trying to get a better perspective on the needs, desires, and concerns of the patients by holding these 20 meetings. Since we are directly impacted by the diseases we are best postured to tell them what’s most important to us.
Get involved … your letter to the FDA (see sample below) is needed by the end of the day November 1st!