Astrazeneca Pharms. LP v. Food & Drug Admin.

• Decision Date: 05 July 2012
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 12–00472 (BAH).
• Citation: 872 F.Supp.2d 60
• Parties: ASTRAZENECA PHARMACEUTICALS LP, Plaintiff, v. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

872 F.Supp.2d 60

ASTRAZENECA PHARMACEUTICALS LP, Plaintiff,

v.FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 12–00472 (BAH).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

July 5, 2012.

Timothy C. Hester, Skye L. Perryman, Covington & Burling LLP, Benjamin C. Block, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff.

Gerald Cooper Kell, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Defendants.

AMENDED MEMORANDUM OPINION

BERYL A. HOWELL, District Judge.

Plaintiff AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP (“AstraZeneca”) has manufactured the drug quetiapine fumarate (“quetiapine”) under the brand name Seroquel® (“Seroquel”) since 1997 without generic competition. AstraZeneca brought this lawsuit, which presents a question of statutory interpretation, against the Food and Drug Administration, Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., Commissioner of Food and Drugs, and Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services (collectively, “the FDA”), to challenge the FDA's approval, on March 27, 2012, of generic versions of Seroquel. See Complaint, ECF No. 1 (“Compl.”), ¶ 3.

AstraZeneca believes that, under the plain language of 21 U.S.C. § 355(j)(5)(F)(iv), codifying Section 505(j)(5)(F)(iv) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (“FDCA”), it is entitled to total market exclusivity until December 2, 2012 for the safety information encapsulated in “Table 2,” which was approved for all Seroquel labels on December 2, 2009 and must be included on the labels of all generic versions of quetiapine. Based upon this belief, AstraZeneca seeks a judgment that the FDA's recent approval of generic versions of quetiapine, while AstraZeneca retains exclusivity over Table 2, violated AstraZeneca's exclusivity rights and was arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law.

Pending before the Court are Cross–Motions for Summary Judgment filed by AstraZeneca, ECF No. 21, and the FDA, ECF No. 26. For the reasons explained below, the Court denies AstraZeneca's Motion for Summary Judgment and grants the FDA's Motion for Summary Judgment.

I. BACKGROUND¹A. STATUTORY AND REGULATORY BACKGROUND

1. New Drug Applications

The pharmaceutical drug approval process for both new and generic drugs is governed by the FDCA, as amended by, inter alia, the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984, Pub.L. No. 98–417, 98 Stat. 1585 (“Hatch–Waxman Amendments”) (codified at 21 U.S.C. §§ 355, 360cc (2000), and 35 U.S.C. §§ 156, 271, and 282 (2000)).² The FDA is the agency charged with approving all new and generic drugs for market. See21 U.S.C. § 355(a).

Under the FDCA, pharmaceutical drug manufacturers interested in marketing a new pharmaceutical drug (otherwise known as an “innovator” or “pioneer” drug), such as Seroquel, must file a new drug application (“NDA”) with the FDA as required by 21 U.S.C. § 355(b)(1), and must demonstrate, inter alia, the safety and efficacy of the drug. See id.; Compl. ¶ 29. Pioneer drug companies must file with the FDA “full reports of investigations which have been made to show whether or not such drug is safe for use and whether such drug is effective in use,” 21 U.S.C. § 355(b)(1)(A), and other information, including “a full statement of the composition of such drug,” 21 U.S.C. § 355(b)(1)(C), and “specimens of the labeling proposed to be used for such drug,” 21 U.S.C. § 355(b)(1)(F). “Once the drug is approved, it is referred to as a ‘listed drug.’ ” Sanofi–Aventis U.S. LLC v. FDA, 842 F.Supp.2d 195, 196–98 (D.D.C.2012) (citing 21 C.F.R. § 314.3(b)).

The FDA publishes listed drugs in the “Orange Book,” which includes information about applicable patents and periods of exclusivity. See Orange Book: Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations, available at http:// www. fda. gov/ cder/ ob/ (“Orange Book”). The Orange Book provides notice to generic drug applicants about when drug patents and periods of exclusivity expire, and when there will be openings to market generic versions of pioneer drugs. See Defs.' Mem. in Supp. of Mot. for Summ. J. (“Defs.' Mem.”) at 4.

2. Abbreviated New Drug Applications

The Hatch–Waxman Amendments to the FDCA allowed manufacturers to seek approval from the FDA to market generic drugs by filing an abbreviated new drug application (“ANDA”). See21 U.S.C. § 355(j). The significance of the Hatch–Waxman Amendments has been aptly noted by other Judges in this Circuit:

Prior to 1984, all applicants seeking to market pioneer drugs or generic non-antibiotic drugs had to file [a new drug application (“NDA”) ] containing, inter alia, extensive scientific data demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of the drug. See21 U.S.C. § 355(a)-(b); 21 C.F.R. § 314.50. As a result, few generic non-antibiotic drugs were approved by [the] FDA. See [Glaxo, Inc. v. Heckler, 623 F.Supp. 69, 72 (E.D.N.C.1985) ]. Hatch–Waxman created an abbreviated approval process for generic non-antibiotic drugs, while retaining incentives for pioneer drugs, such as marketing exclusivity and patent protections. See21 U.S.C. § 355(j). The abbreviated new drug application (“ANDA”) process shortens the time and effort needed for approval of a generic drug by allowing the applicant to merely demonstrate its product's bioequivalence to the NDA drug, without reproducing the entirety of the NDA's extensive scientific research. See Eli Lilly and Co. v. Medtronic, Inc., 496 U.S. 661, 676, 110 S.Ct. 2683, 110 L.Ed.2d 605 (1990) (describing the ANDA process).

ViroPharma, Inc. v. Hamburg, ––– F.Supp.2d ––––, ––––, No. 12–0584, 2012 WL 1388183, at *2, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56128, at *6–7 (D.D.C. Apr. 23, 2012) (quoting Allergan, Inc. v. Crawford, 398 F.Supp.2d 13, 16–17 (D.D.C.2005)).

Unlike applicants for pioneer drugs, applicants for generic drugs are not required to submit clinical data to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of their product. Instead, according to the FDA, “if an ANDA applicant establishes that its proposed drug product has the same active ingredient, strength, dosage form, route of administration, labeling (with certain permissible differences), and conditions of use as a listed drug, and that it is bioequivalent to that drug, the applicant” may rely on the FDA's earlier findings of safety and efficacy for the drug when it was approved as an NDA. Defs.' Mem. at 5; see also21 U.S.C. § 355(j); Compl. ¶ 34.

FDA-approved generic versions of a drug must utilize the “same” labeling as the labeling approved for the reference-listed drug, except for labeling differences “based on a suitability petition or because the generic drug and the reference drug are produced or distributed by different manufacturers.” Compl. ¶ 35; 21 U.S.C. § 355(j)(2)(A)(v) (an ANDA must include “information to show that the labeling proposed for the new drug is the same as the labeling approved for the listed drug referred to in clause (i)....”). FDA regulations require that, when a manufacturer submits an ANDA, “[l]abeling (including the container label, package insert, and, if applicable, Medication Guide) proposed for the drug product must be the same as the labeling approved for the reference listed drug,” with certain exceptions not applicable here. 21 C.F.R. § 314.94(a)(8)(iv); see AR 294, 305 (FDA Letter, dated Mar. 27, 2012, to AstraZeneca, explaining that the “FDA concurs that these portions of the labeling are essential to safe use of a generic quetiapine product referencing Seroquel for any indication, and the agency would not approve a quetiapine ANDA referencing Seroquel that omitted them”); Defs.' Mem. at 3 (noting that “the safety information in Table 2 is necessary for safe use of the product and therefore cannot be carved out ...”).

3. Exclusivity Periods

Since “Congress still wanted to provide incentives for new drug development, alongside the ANDA process that eased the marketing of generic drugs, Hatch–Waxman entitles an NDA applicant to a period of market exclusivity (3 or 5 years, depending on the degree of innovation reflected in the NDA)....” ViroPharma, ––– F.Supp.2d at ––––, 2012 WL 1388183, at *3, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56128, at *7 (quoting Allergan, Inc., 398 F.Supp.2d at 17). During an exclusivity period, the FDA is barred from approving a generic ANDA for the NDA product. See id. (citing 21 U.S.C. §§ 355(c)(3)(D)(ii)(iv), (j)(5)(D)(ii)-(iv)). In this case, for example, following Seroquel's approval on September 26, 1997, the FDA granted AstraZeneca a five-year period of “new chemical entity” exclusivity for Seroquel. Defs.' Mem. at 8.

Pioneer drugs may also be eligible under statutorily prescribed circumstances for additional periods of exclusivity on the basis of medical studies completed after the drug approval process. These additional exclusivity periods “provide incentives to pioneer companies to conduct new clinical investigations [for] previously approved NDAs, including through ‘supplemental’ NDAs (‘sNDAs').” Compl. ¶ 32 (citation omitted).

The statutory provision at issue in this case, 21 U.S.C. § 355(j)(5)(F)(iv), describes one such circumstance, for new indications or uses of the already approved pioneer drug. This section provides:

If a supplement to an application approved under subsection (b) is approved after the date of enactment of this subsection [enacted Sept. 24, 1984] and the supplement contains reports of new clinical investigations (other than bioavailability studies) essential to the approval of the supplement and conducted or sponsored by the person submitting the supplement, the Secretary may not make the approval of an [ANDA] ... for a change approved in the supplement effective before the expiration of three years from the date of the approval of the supplement under subsection (b).

21 U.S.C. § 355(j)(5)(F)(iv).³

Three-year exclusivity under this statutory provision is sometimes referred to as “new indication exclusivity” or “new patient population exclusivity” because it often applies to applications for approval of...