A.P. Pharma Receives FDA Complete Response Letter for APF530

– Company Revises Projected Launch Timing from 2H 2013 to 1H 2014 –

– Conference Call to Be Held at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time –

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– A.P. Pharma, Inc. (OTCBB: APPA.OB), a specialty pharmaceutical company, today announced that it has received a Complete Response Letter (CRL) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding its New Drug Application (NDA) for its lead product candidate, APF530, for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV). The CRL describes the following issues that must be addressed.

• With respect to chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC), the FDA has requested the refinement of one product quality analytical test method, and that certain deficiencies identified during facility pre-approval inspections be addressed.
• The FDA has requested that a human factors validation study evaluating the usability of the APF530 syringe system together with its proposed product labeling and instructions for use be conducted with product assembled using a validated, commercial process.
• With respect to clinical, the FDA has requested a re-analysis of the existing Phase 3 clinical data that reclassifies patients into those receiving moderately emetogenic chemotherapy (MEC) and highly emetogenic chemotherapy (HEC) according to the recently modified ASCO 2011 Guideline. The FDA did not request any new clinical studies.

“We appreciate the FDA‘s thorough review of the APF530 NDA,” stated John B. Whelan, A.P. Pharma’s president and chief executive officer. “While disappointed in today’s notification, we believe that the issues raised in the CRL are addressable, and we remain firmly committed to the successful development of APF530, which we believe will fulfill an important unmet need and improve the lives of patients suffering from CINV. In order to allow us time to carefully address the issues raised in the CRL, we are now projecting product launch for the first half of 2014, versus our prior guidance of the second half of 2013.”

Conference Call Details

A.P. Pharma will host a conference call on Thursday, March 28, 2013 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time (5:30 a.m. Pacific Time). Interested investors may participate in …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance