The Prescription Drug User Fee Act of 1992 and the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997 include provisions that were intended to increase the efficiency of the processes required for the clinical development and regulatory review of therapeutic medicines. The expected effects of the legislative acts were decreases in the time required for clinical development and product approval. Results from the analysis of the clinical (Investigational New Drug filing date to Biologic License Application [BLA]/New Drug Application [NDA] submission date) and approval (BLA/NDA submission date to approval date) phases for 54 applications for new biopharmaceutical products submitted to the Food and Drug Administration during fiscal years 1981 through 1998 indicate that while clinical phases consistently increased, the rate of increase slowed substantially for fiscal years 1997 through 1998. The approval phase for fiscal years 1997 through 1998, however proved to be the shortest of any time period examined. Taken together the data from fiscal years 1997 through 1998 show the first decrease in the mean total length of time required for clinical development and approval of biopharmaceuticals. Similar analyses of data for 384 applications for new chemical entities indicate that mean clinical and approval phase lengths were shorter for fiscal years 1997 through 1998 than for any other time period included in the study. The results of this study suggest that the regulatory reforms associated with enactment of PDUFA and FDAMA have had a marked effect on the development and approval of therapeutic medicines.
