Veterinary Pharmaceuticals
What are Veterinary Pharmaceuticals? Veterinary pharmaceuticals (veterinary drugs) are those products which achieve their effect through chemical reaction or metabolism in the body. This mechanism of action distinguishes veterinary pharmaceuticals from veterinary medical devices or veterinary biologics. Before beginning the process of developing a product for veterinary medicine, it is very important to understand how a product will be regulated as the development process and manufacturing requirements can be very different among the various agencies that regulate veterinary products.
Developing Veterinary Pharmaceuticals: There are a variety of steps to developing veterinary drugs / veterinary pharmaceuticals. Woods Consulting, LLC can assist companies in opening and Investigational New Animal Drug file (INAD), and reviewing the fees associated with New Animal Drug Applications as described in the Animal Drug User Fee Act (ADUFA).
Examples of Veterinary Drugs: Antibiotics, antifungals, anthelmintics, cardiovascular drugs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs), and steroids.
Veterinary Drug Regulations: In the United States, veterinary drugs are subject to the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act and must receive an approval from the FDA-CVM before they can legally marketed. Before entering confirmatory veterinary clinical trials in support of an approval (New Animal Drug Application or NADA), Sponsors must open an Investigational New Animal Drug Application and obtain a Notice of Claimed Investigational Exemption (NCIE). The veterinary clinical trials should be designed to support the label claims, and meet the criteria for evidencing substantial evidence of safety and efficacy (often referred to as target animal safety studies and target animal efficacy studies). In addition, there are very specific requirements on the manufacturing of products, such as applying Good Manufacturing Practices, and there can be different requirements for labeling and reporting adverse events.
Links to Veterinary Regulatory Agencies
USA: Food and Drug Administration – Center for Veterinary Medicine.
Europe: European Medicines Agency
Canada: Veterinary Drugs Directorate.
Extralabel use of FDA approved Drugs in Veterinary Medicine: Veterinarians are also permitted to prescribe, under extralabel use, certain approved new animal drugs and approved human drugs according to the Animal Medicinal Drug Use Clarification Act (AMDUCA). Veterinary extralabel use of drugs approved by the FDA is defined as “Actual use or intended use of a drug in an animal in a manner that is not in accordance with the approved labeling. This includes, but is not limited to, use in species not listed in the labeling, use for indications (disease and other conditions) not listed in the labeling, use at dosage levels, frequencies, or routes of administration other than those stated in the labeling, and deviation from labeled withdrawal time based on these different uses.”
New Animal Drug Applications (NADA) require the following technical sections of the veterinary drug master file should be submitted and satisfied.
Target Animal Safety
Target Animal Efficacy
Human Food Safety
Chemistry, Man. and Controls
Environmental Impact
More information can be found on our Veterinary Regulations page.