Implementing the additional strength biowaiver for generics: EMA recommended approaches and challenges for a US-FDA submission.

This review describes the EMA requirements on biowaivers for additional strengths of immediate release and modified release oral solid dosage forms focused on generic applications and highlights the challenges for a simultaneous EMA and FDA submission. Some specificities of the current EMA guidelines are compared with the current FDA Guidance for Industry, with a special focus on the strength to be investigated in vivo, formulation suitability for biowaiver, and optimizing dissolution studies for additional strength biowaivers. In Europe, the same principles applied for generics may be considered for deriving the biowaivers for innovator products. Several case studies are presented to illustrate the challenges of applying for additional strength biowaivers in EMA and FDA simultaneously.

Implementing the Biopharmaceutics Classification System in Drug Development: Reconciling Similarities, Differences, and Shared Challenges in the EMA and US-FDA-Recommended Approaches.

The US-FDA recently posted a draft guideline for industry recommending procedures necessary to obtain a biowaiver for immediate-release oral dosage forms based on the Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS). This review compares the present FDA BCS biowaiver approach, with the existing European Medicines Agency (EMA) approach, with an emphasis on similarities, difficulties, and shared challenges. Some specifics of the current EMA BCS guideline are compared with those in the recently published draft US-FDA BCS guideline. In particular, similarities and differences in the EMA versus US-FDA approaches to establishing drug solubility, permeability, dissolution, and formulation suitability for BCS biowaiver are critically reviewed. Several case studies are presented to illustrate the (i) challenges of applying for BCS biowaivers for global registration in the face of differences in the EMA and US-FDA BCS biowaiver criteria, as well as (ii) challenges inherent in applying for BCS class I or III designation and common to both jurisdictions.