Notice2026-06483
Determination of Regulatory Review Period for Purposes of Patent Extension; INJECTAFER
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
April 3, 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 INJECTAFER and is publishing this notice of that determination as required by law. FDA has made the determination because of the submission of an application 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 drug product.
Full Text
<html>
<head>
<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 64 (Friday, April 3, 2026)</title>
</head>
<body><pre>
[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 64 (Friday, April 3, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16954-16955]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-06483]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Food and Drug Administration
[Docket No. FDA-2014-E-2328]
Determination of Regulatory Review Period for Purposes of Patent
Extension; INJECTAFER
AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency) has
determined the regulatory review period for INJECTAFER and is
publishing this notice of that determination as required by law. FDA
has made the determination because of the submission of an application
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 drug product.
DATES: Anyone with knowledge that any of the dates as published (see
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION) are incorrect may submit either electronic
or written comments and ask for a redetermination by June 2, 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 September 30, 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 June 2, 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 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 No.
FDA-2014-E-2328 for ``Determination of Regulatory Review Period for
Purposes of Patent Extension; INJECTAFER.'' 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
[[Page 16955]]
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: Patrick Clouser, Office of the
Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration, 12420 Parklawn Drive,
Rockville, MD 20852, 240-402-5276.
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 biological 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 drug products, the
testing phase begins when the exemption to permit the clinical
investigations of the drug becomes effective and runs until the
approval phase begins. The approval phase starts with the initial
submission of an application to market the human drug product and
continues until FDA grants permission to market the drug 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
drug 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 drug product, INJECTAFER
(ferric carboxymaltose). INJECTAFER is indicated for the treatment of
iron deficiency anemia in adult patients who have intolerance to oral
iron or have had unsatisfactory response to oral iron; and who have
non-dialysis dependent chronic kidney disease. After this approval, the
USPTO received a patent term restoration application for INJECTAFER
(U.S. Patent No. 7,612,109) from Vifor Internationasl, AG, and the
USPTO requested FDA's assistance in determining the patent's
eligibility for patent term restoration. In a letter dated September
29, 2025, FDA advised the USPTO that this human drug product had
undergone a regulatory review period and that the approval of
INJECTAFER 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
INJECTAFER is 3,450 days. Of this time, 853 days occurred during the
testing phase of the regulatory review period, while 2,597 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 (FD&C Act) (21 U.S.C. 355(i)) became effective:
February 15, 2004. The applicant claims February 21, 2004, as the date
the investigational new drug application (IND) became effective.
However, FDA records indicate that the IND effective date was February
15, 2004, which was 30 days after FDA receipt of the IND.
2. The date the application was initially submitted with respect to
the human drug product under section 505 of the FD&C Act: June 16,
2006. The applicant claims June 15, 2006, as the date the new drug
application (NDA) for INJECTAFER (NDA 22054/203565) was initially
submitted. However, FDA records indicate that NDA 22054/203565 was
submitted on June 16, 2006.
3. The date the application was approved: July 25, 2013. FDA has
verified the applicant's claim that NDA 22054/203565 was approved on
July 25, 2013.
This determination of the regulatory review period establishes the
maximum potential length of a patent extension. However, the USPTO
applies several statutory limitations in its calculations of the actual
period for patent extension. In its application for patent extension,
this applicant seeks 1,267 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. 2026-06483 Filed 4-2-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4164-01-P
</pre></body>
</html>Indexed from Federal Register on April 3, 2026.
This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.