Notice2026-02974
Determination of Regulatory Review Period for Purposes of Patent Extension; AMTAGVI
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
February 13, 2026
Issuing agencies
Health and Human Services DepartmentFood and Drug Administration
Abstract
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency) has determined the regulatory review period for AMTAGVI and is publishing this notice of that determination as required by law. FDA has made the determination because of the submission of applications to the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Department of Commerce, for the extension of a patent which claims that human biological product.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 30 (Friday, February 13, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 30 (Friday, February 13, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6850-6852]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-02974]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Food and Drug Administration
[Docket Nos. FDA-2024-E-3532 and FDA-2024-E-3534]
Determination of Regulatory Review Period for Purposes of Patent
Extension; AMTAGVI
AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency) has
determined the regulatory review period for AMTAGVI and is publishing
this notice of that determination as required by law. FDA has made the
determination because of the submission of applications to the Director
of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Department of
Commerce, for the extension of a patent which claims that human
biological product.
DATES: Anyone with knowledge that any of the dates as published (see
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION) are incorrect must submit either electronic
or written comments and ask for a redetermination by April 14, 2026.
Furthermore, any interested person may petition FDA for a determination
regarding whether the applicant for extension acted with due diligence
during the regulatory review period by August 12, 2026. See
``Petitions'' in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section for more
information.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments as follows. Please note that late,
untimely filed comments will not be considered. The <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> electronic filing system will accept comments until
11:59 p.m. Eastern Time at the end of April 14, 2026. Comments received
by mail/hand delivery/courier (for written/paper submissions) will be
considered timely if they are received on or before that date.
Electronic Submissions
Submit electronic comments in the following way:
<bullet> Federal eRulemaking Portal: <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a>.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Comments submitted
electronically, including attachments, to <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a>
will be posted to the docket unchanged. Because your comment will be
made public, you are solely responsible for ensuring that your comment
does not include any confidential information that you or a third party
may not wish to be posted, such as medical information, your or anyone
else's Social Security number, or confidential business information,
such as a manufacturing process. Please note that if you include your
name, contact information, or other information that identifies you in
the body of your comments, that information will be posted on <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a>.
<bullet> If you want to submit a comment with confidential
information that you do not wish to be made available to the public,
submit the comment as a written/paper submission and in the
[[Page 6851]]
manner detailed (see ``Written/Paper Submissions'' and
``Instructions'').
Written/Paper Submissions
Submit written/paper submissions as follows:
<bullet> Mail/Hand Delivery/Courier (for written/paper
submissions): Dockets Management Staff (HFA-305), Food and Drug
Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.
<bullet> For written/paper comments submitted to the Dockets
Management Staff, FDA will post your comment, as well as any
attachments, except for information submitted, marked and identified,
as confidential, if submitted as detailed in ``Instructions.''
Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket Nos.
FDA-2024-E-3532 and FDA-2024-E-3534 for ``Determination of Regulatory
Review Period for Purposes of Patent Extension; AMTAGVI.'' Received
comments, those filed in a timely manner (see ADDRESSES), will be
placed in the docket and, except for those submitted as ``Confidential
Submissions,'' publicly viewable at <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> or at
the Dockets Management Staff between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through
Friday, 240-402-7500.
<bullet> Confidential Submissions--To submit a comment with
confidential information that you do not wish to be made publicly
available, submit your comments only as a written/paper submission. You
should submit two copies total. One copy will include the information
you claim to be confidential with a heading or cover note that states
``THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.'' The Agency will
review this copy, including the claimed confidential information, in
its consideration of comments. The second copy, which will have the
claimed confidential information redacted/blacked out, will be
available for public viewing and posted on <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a>.
Submit both copies to the Dockets Management Staff. If you do not wish
your name and contact information to be made publicly available, you
can provide this information on the cover sheet and not in the body of
your comments and you must identify this information as
``confidential.'' Any information marked as ``confidential'' will not
be disclosed except in accordance with Sec. 10.20 (21 CFR 10.20) and
other applicable disclosure law. For more information about FDA's
posting of comments to public dockets, see 80 FR 56469, September 18,
2015, or access the information at: <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2015-09-18/pdf/2015-23389.pdf">https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2015-09-18/pdf/2015-23389.pdf</a>.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
the electronic and written/paper comments received, go to <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> and insert the docket number, found in brackets in
the heading of this document, into the ``Search'' box and follow the
prompts and/or go to the Dockets Management Staff, 5630 Fishers Lane,
Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852, 240-402-7500.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jack Dan, Office of Regulatory Policy,
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration,
10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 51, Rm. 6200, Silver Spring, MD 20993,
240-402-6940.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984
(Pub. L. 98-417) and the Generic Animal Drug and Patent Term
Restoration Act (Pub. L. 100-670) generally provide that a patent may
be extended for a period of up to 5 years so long as the patented item
(human drug or biologic product, animal drug product, medical device,
food additive, or color additive) was subject to regulatory review by
FDA before the item was marketed. Under these acts, a product's
regulatory review period forms the basis for determining the amount of
extension an applicant may receive.
A regulatory review period consists of two periods of time: a
testing phase and an approval phase. For human biological products, the
testing phase begins when the exemption to permit the clinical
investigations of the biological product becomes effective and runs
until the approval phase begins. The approval phase starts with the
initial submission of an application to market the human biological
product and continues until FDA grants permission to market the
biological product. Although only a portion of a regulatory review
period may count toward the actual amount of extension that the
Director of USPTO may award (for example, half the testing phase must
be subtracted as well as any time that may have occurred before the
patent was issued), FDA's determination of the length of a regulatory
review period for a human biological product will include all of the
testing phase and approval phase as specified in 35 U.S.C.
156(g)(1)(B).
FDA has approved for marketing the human biologic product AMTAGVI
(lifileucel). AMTAGVI is indicated for the treatment of adult patients
with unresectable or metastatic melanoma previously treated with a PD-1
blocking antibody, and if BRAF V600 mutation positive, a BRAF inhibitor
with or without a MEK inhibitor. This indication is approved under
accelerated approval based on objective response rate. Continued
approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and
description of clinical benefit in a confirmatory trial(s). Subsequent
to this approval, the USPTO received patent term restoration
applications for AMTAGVI (U.S. Patent Nos. 10,639,330 and 11,291,687)
from Iovance Biotherapeutics, and the USPTO requested FDA's assistance
in determining these patents' eligibility for patent term restoration.
In a letter dated August 12, 2025, FDA advised the USPTO that this
human biological product had undergone a regulatory review period and
that the approval of AMTAGVI represented the first permitted commercial
marketing or use of the product. Thereafter, the USPTO requested that
FDA determine the product's regulatory review period.
II. Determination of Regulatory Review Period
FDA has determined that the applicable regulatory review period for
AMTAGVI is 3,306 days. Of this time, 2,969 days occurred during the
testing phase of the regulatory review period, while 337 days occurred
during the approval phase. These periods of time were derived from the
following dates:
1. The date an exemption under section 505(i) of the Federal Food,
Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 355(i)) became effective: January 30,
2015. FDA has verified the applicant's claim that the date the
investigational new drug application became effective was on January
30, 2015.
2. The date the application was initially submitted with respect to
the human biological product under section 351 of the Public Health
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 262): March 17, 2023. The applicant claims
August 24, 2022, as the date the biologics license application (BLA)
for AMTAGVI (BLA 125773) was initially submitted. However, FDA records
indicate that BLA 125773 was submitted on March 17, 2023.
3. The date the application was approved: February 16, 2024. FDA
has verified the applicant's claim that BLA 125773 was approved on
February 16, 2024.
This determination of the regulatory review period establishes the
maximum potential length of a patent extension. However, the USPTO
applies several
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statutory limitations in its calculations of the actual period for
patent extension. In its application for patent extension, this
applicant seeks 42 days of patent term extension.
III. Petitions
Anyone with knowledge that any of the dates as published are
incorrect may submit either electronic or written comments and, under
21 CFR 60.24, ask for a redetermination (see DATES). Furthermore, as
specified in Sec. 60.30 (21 CFR 60.30), any interested person may
petition FDA for a determination regarding whether the applicant for
extension acted with due diligence during the regulatory review period.
To meet its burden, the petition must comply with all the requirements
of Sec. 60.30, including but not limited to: must be timely (see
DATES), must be filed in accordance with Sec. 10.20, must contain
sufficient facts to merit an FDA investigation, and must certify that a
true and complete copy of the petition has been served upon the patent
applicant. (See H. Rept. 857, part 1, 98th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 41-42,
1984.) Petitions should be in the format specified in 21 CFR 10.30.
Submit petitions electronically to <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> at
Docket No. FDA-2013-S-0610. Submit written petitions (two copies are
required) to the Dockets Management Staff (HFA-305), Food and Drug
Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.
Grace R. Graham,
Deputy Commissioner for Policy, Legislation, and International Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2026-02974 Filed 2-12-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4164-01-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on February 13, 2026.
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