With just a few weeks left in 2014, CDER has so far approved 35 novel new drugs in 2014 compared to 27 in 2013. These numbers include both new molecular entities (NMEs), submitted to CDER in New Drug Applications (NDAs) and new therapeutic biologics submitted to CDER in Biologics License Applications (BLAs).
To date, 15 of the approvals have been first in their class drugs, an indicator of their potentially strong clinical impact.
The FDA has reached a milestone with a record 15 approvals for rare diseases. The previous high was 13 drugs in 2012. These results are all the more significant because patients with rare diseases often have few or no drugs available to treat their conditions.
To ensure that 2014’s novel drugs get to patients as quickly as possible, CDER effectively employed a variety of regulatory tools including FDA’s expedited development and review programs – fast track, priority review, accelerated approval and our new breakthrough therapy designation.
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