Premo Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Inc. v. US

Decision Date27 July 1979
Docket NumberNo. 78 Civ. 5435(MP).,78 Civ. 5435(MP).
Citation475 F. Supp. 52
PartiesPREMO PHARMACEUTICAL LABORATORIES, INC., Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES of America, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, and Donald M. Kennedy, Commissioner of Food and Drugs, Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

Kirschstein, Kirschstein, Ottinger & Cobrin by David B. Kirschstein, New York City, Keller & Heckman by John S. Eldred and Deborah Shur Trinker, Washington, D. C., for plaintiff.

Robert B. Fiske, U. S. Atty., S.D.N.Y., by Janis Farrell and John M. O'Connor, Asst. U. S. Attys., New York City, for U. S. and H. E. W.

Jacqueline H. Eagle, Rockville, Md., for Food and Drug Administration.

OPINION

POLLACK, District Judge.

This is a suit by a manufacturer of pharmaceutical drugs against the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare and the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, seeking a declaratory judgment that a questioned product manufactured by the plaintiff is not classifiable as a new drug and therefore may be freely sold and distributed without prior approval by the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA" hereafter). The FDA has initiated seizure actions against the product in four states and has threatened to seize it elsewhere. Thus there exists a justiciable controversy between the parties, and the Court has jurisdiction of the suit under 5 U.S.C. §§ 701-706; 21 U.S.C. § 301 et seq.; and 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331(a) and 2201.

Temporary relief by way of preliminary injunction was denied, and the issues were presented at a bench trial. For the reasons appearing hereafter the plaintiff, having established its right to relief by the requisite preponderance of credible evidence, will be awarded the declaratory judgment it seeks.

The plaintiff manufactures a tablet known as "Insulase," which is intended for use in the treatment of adults with mild to moderate chronic diabetes. The active ingredient in Insulase is the chemical chlorpropamide ("CPA" hereafter). CPA is also the active ingredient in a tablet manufactured by Pfizer Laboratories, Inc., "Diabinese," which is likewise used to treat diabetes. The inactive ingredients in Diabinese and Insulase, however, are not the same.

The plaintiff now sues for a declaratory judgment that Insulase is not a "new drug" within the meaning of section 201(p) of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, 21 U.S.C. § 321(p). That section defines "new drug" as "any drug not generally recognized, among experts qualified by scientific training and experience to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of drugs as safe and effective for use under the conditions prescribed, recommended, or suggested in the labelling thereof. . . ." As noted above, if Insulase is not a "new drug" then it may be marketed without the prior approval of the FDA.

Diabinese was approved by the FDA over 20 years ago and has since been widely prescribed by physicians in the treatment of adult diabetics. The defendants concede that both Diabinese and CPA are generally recognized as safe and effective and that the inactive ingredients in Insulase are individually recognized as safe. The question, then, is whether the different combinations of inactive ingredients in Diabinese and Insulase make the latter a "new drug." Before addressing that question, it is necessary to set forth some terminology used in the analysis of drugs.

A drug product is a particular drug made by a particular manufacturer. Thus Diabinese and Insulase are different drug products, even though their active ingredients are the same. A drug product normally includes an active ingredient and various inactive ingredients, known collectively as excipients. Excipients may include binders mixed with the active ingredient to form a tablet, coatings, colorings, flavors, etc.

The bio-availability of a drug product is the time within which the active ingredient reaches the site of its intended action in the body, together with the amount of the active ingredient that reaches that site. See 21 C.F.R. § 320.1(a). Bio-availability is measured clinically by administering the drug to a subject and measuring periodically thereafter the amount of the active ingredient present at the site of its intended action (or, if measurements cannot be taken at that site, then by measuring the amount of the active ingredient present in the bloodstream). The results of these measurements can be displayed on a graph in which the time since the drug was taken is shown on the horizontal axis and the measured amount of active ingredient shown on the vertical axis. If the results of each measurement are plotted on the graph, they will form a curve that begins where the two axes intersect (representing the time when the subject first took the drug and had none of the active ingredient in his bloodstream), then rises to a peak (representing the time when the subject had the greatest amount of the active ingredient in his bloodstream), and ultimately falls back to the horizontal axis (representing the time when the subject had eliminated all of the active ingredient from his bloodstream).

When such a curve is drawn it is possible to determine the three values by which the bio-availability of a drug product is measured, namely, C-max, T-max, and the area under the curve. C-max (which stands for maximum concentration) is the greatest amount of the active ingredient found to be present in the bloodstream during any one measurement. It is represented by the peak of the curve. T-max is the time after administration of the drug at which C-max occurs. The area under the curve is the area enclosed by the curve and the horizontal axis and is a measure of the total amount of the active ingredient that was present in the body from the time when the drug was taken through the time when all of the active ingredient was eliminated.

The foregoing method of measuring bio-availability may be used when a drug product is to be taken so infrequently that all of the active ingredient from one dose is eliminated from the body before another dose is taken. CPA tablets, however, are normally taken daily, yet some of their active ingredient remains in the body for as much as a week. Thus when a patient begins a regimen of CPA tablets, the amount of CPA in his bloodstream will rise daily to an even-higher maximum until it reaches a steady state. In this steady state, the amount of CPA in the bloodstream will rise to a certain level after the patient has taken his daily tablet, then fall to a certain level as CPA is eliminated from the body later in the day, then rise again to the previous high level after the patient takes his tablet on the next day, and so on. The high level reached daily after taking the tablet is the maximum steady state level, the low level is the minimum steady state level, and the average amount of CPA in the bloodstream during steady state is the mean steady state level.

Although the term "new drug" is defined in the Act, its application in a case like this is unsettled.

The plaintiff argues that the word "drug" in the terms "new drug" denotes only the active ingredient in a drug product and, therefore, that if an active ingredient is generally recognized to be safe and effective, then a drug product containing that active ingredient is not a "new drug". This interpretation of "new drug," however, runs afoul of section 201(g)(1)(B) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. § 321(g)(1)(B), which defines "drug" as "articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation treatment, or prevention of disease in man. . . ." The word "articles," as used in this definition, is quite broad enough to encompass drug products as well as active ingredients. Further, the interpretation advocated by the plaintiff has been rejected by the courts, which have not distinguished between the general recognition of active and inactive ingredients in determining whether a drug product is a "new drug." See United States v. X-Otag Plus Tablets, 441 F. Supp. 105 111 (D.Colo.1977) (citing cases). Furthermore, the evidence shows that differences in excipients may impair the safety or effectiveness of a drug product even though its active ingredient is generally recognized as safe and effective. For example, the coating of a tablet used to treat acute conditions may dissolve so slowly that the active ingredient does not reach the site of its intended action in time to do any good. For all these reasons, the Court must reject the view that the term "new drug" denotes only active ingredients. Cf. United States v. Articles of Drug (Lannett Co.), 585 F.2d 575, 582-83 (3d Cir. 1978).

The defendants have taken three positions during this litigation on the meaning of the term "new drug." First they have argued that a drug product is a "new drug" if that particular drug product is not generally...

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4 cases
  • US v. Premo Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Civ. No. 80-699.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 3th Circuit. United States District Courts. 3th Circuit. District of New Jersey
    • January 20, 1981
    ...limited number of cases have addressed this issue. In addition to the Premo decisions in the court of appeals and district court 475 F.Supp. 52 (S.D.N.Y.1979), see United States v. Articles of Drug (Lannett), 585 F.2d 575 (3d Cir. 1978) ("Lannett"); United States v. Generix Drug Corp., 498 ......
  • Premo Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Inc. v. U.S., 863
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit)
    • July 29, 1980
    ...judgment of the District Court for the Southern District of New York entered on August 2, 1979, by Judge Milton Pollack and reported at 475 F.Supp. 52, declaring (1) that "Insulase," a drug product manufactured by plaintiff-appellee, Premo, for use in the treatment of diabetes, is not a "ne......
  • U.S. v. Generix Drug Corp., s. 80-5652
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)
    • September 4, 1981
    ...less safe and effective than the recognized product. District Court Opinion at 292, quoting Premo Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Inc. v. United States, 475 F.Supp. 52, 55 (S.D.N.Y. 1979), reversed 629 F.2d 795 (2d Cir. 1980). The district court then concluded that the government's experts had......
  • United States v. Generix Drug Corp., 79-6655-Civ-NCR.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 11th Circuit. United States District Courts. 11th Circuit. Southern District of Florida
    • June 12, 1980
    ...court's dictum on the "new drug" question. Pharmadyne Laboratories, 596 F.2d 573 (3rd Cir. 1979). Premo Pharmaceutical Laboratories Inc. v. United States, 475 F.Supp. 52 (S.D. N.Y.1979) appears to rest on the vast expanse of middle ground between "Lannett and Pharmadyne Laboratories. In Pre......

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