Pharma Pt 1.15 Feb 2017 17:56
Okay so, I have some free time lol.
Pharma companies when it comes to regulation/FDA meetings are detail heavy, so I will be summarising here.
For your run of the mill Pharma company, they discover a new compound, perform toxicology and PK (pharmacokinetic, aka bioavilability) on it, and run it through the usual Phase 1, 2 a b, and 3 trials to get clinical data on whether that compound works - this takes circa 10 years alongside a LOT of money (phase 3's depending on disease can be 100 million PER TRIAL.)
Anyway, the main things a normal pharma company discusses with FDA are
1. CMC (Chemistry Manufacture Control)
2. Supply (you need to prove your supply can meet patient demand
3. Toxicology
4. PK
5. IND/NDA
6. Pre Approval Inspections
7. Audits.
So CMC. This is essentially collating a lot of data, in accordance with many guidelines (for chemistry, it would be ICH, manufacturing would be the USP or orange guide for UK etc) to show that your product passes all criteria laid down. You need to ensure quality and control on every section of work - Raw materials, processing them, modifying them, making the formulation, mixing the API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) with the excipient (OXPZero in this case), containment, shipping etc etc logistics nightmare.
Chemistry controls are there to ensure you have analysed your drug properly and that determines your shelf life eventually, through ICH stressed studies to identify when the drugs potency has failed usual regulations (this tends to be 90% of Label Claim)
After these hurdles, the main hurdles are FDA coming to physically visit your manufacturing site, your labs, and to ensure your paperwork etc is transparent and in accordance with all rules and regs.
Now, the reason I am extremely excited about OXP is the directors want to access the OCT market (Over the Counter) but have no gone to prescription potentially.
The main hurdles with OTC are Supply chain - as OTC sells like hotcakes, especially generic NSAID's. OXP have only ever made intermediate scale batches
OTC also needs to pass certain addictive laws.From my knowledge OXPZero and the NSAID's have no addiction profiles, so this should be all good.
OTC also needs to demonstrate overdose limitations and that comes back to manufacture scaling on box sizes etc
The main hurdle I believe OXP have come across (This is simply a hunch!) is that they are marketing this product to reduce GI inflammation. Now, other than those who react severely and are under doctors supervision or constant GP appointments, how does one diagnose themself with GI irritation from Ibuprofen?
Rememeber how Nurofen got in trouble for marketing the same dose of Ibuprofen for different prices to combat different pains despite it all being the same? Yeah, well, the "self use" wasn't clear, in that, customers felt they should buy one type of Nurofen - which is not legal
Pt 2 incoming...