
[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 237 (Thursday, December 10, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 76697-76699]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-31095]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Food and Drug Administration

[Docket No. FDA-2014-E-0271]


Determination of Regulatory Review Period for Purposes of Patent 
Extension; ARGUS II VISUAL STIMULATION SYSTEM

AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined the 
regulatory review period for ARGUS II VISUAL STIMULATION SYSTEM and is 
publishing this notice of that determination as required by law. FDA 
has made the determination because of the submission of an application 
to the Director of the U.S. Patent and

[[Page 76698]]

Trademark Office (USPTO), Department of Commerce, for the extension of 
a patent which claims that medical device.

DATES: Anyone with knowledge that any of the dates as published (see 
the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section) are incorrect may submit either 
electronic or written comments and ask for a redetermination by 
February 8, 2016. Furthermore, any interested person may petition FDA 
for a determination regarding whether the applicant for extension acted 
with due diligence during the regulatory review period by June 7, 2016. 
See ``Petitions'' in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section for more 
information.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments as follows:

Electronic Submissions

    Submit electronic comments in the following way:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Comments submitted 
electronically, including attachments, to http://www.regulations.gov 
will be posted to the docket unchanged. Because your comment will be 
made public, you are solely responsible for ensuring that your comment 
does not include any confidential information that you or a third party 
may not wish to be posted, such as medical information, your or anyone 
else's Social Security number, or confidential business information, 
such as a manufacturing process. Please note that if you include your 
name, contact information, or other information that identifies you in 
the body of your comments, that information will be posted on http://www.regulations.gov.
     If you want to submit a comment with confidential 
information that you do not wish to be made available to the public, 
submit the comment as a written/paper submission and in the manner 
detailed (see ``Written/Paper Submissions'' and ``Instructions'').

Written/Paper Submissions

    Submit written/paper submissions as follows:
     Mail/Hand delivery/Courier (for written/paper 
submissions): Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305), Food and Drug 
Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.
     For written/paper comments submitted to the Division of 
Dockets Management, FDA will post your comment, as well as any 
attachments, except for information submitted, marked and identified, 
as confidential, if submitted as detailed in ``Instructions.''
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket No. 
FDA-2014-E-0271 for Determination of Regulatory Review Period for 
Purposes of Patent Extension; ARGUS II VISUAL STIMULATION SYSTEM. 
Received comments will be placed in the docket and, except for those 
submitted as ``Confidential Submissions,'' publicly viewable at http://www.regulations.gov or at the Division of Dockets Management between 9 
a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
    Confidential Submissions--To submit a comment with confidential 
information that you do not wish to be made publicly available, submit 
your comments only as a written/paper submission. You should submit two 
copies total. One copy will include the information you claim to be 
confidential with a heading or cover note that states ``THIS DOCUMENT 
CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION''. The Agency will review this copy, 
including the claimed confidential information, in its consideration of 
comments. The second copy, which will have the claimed confidential 
information redacted/blacked out, will be available for public viewing 
and posted on http://www.regulations.gov. Submit both copies to the 
Division of Dockets Management. If you do not wish your name and 
contact information to be made publicly available, you can provide this 
information on the cover sheet and not in the body of your comments and 
you must identify this information as ``confidential.'' Any information 
marked as ``confidential'' will not be disclosed except in accordance 
with 21 CFR 10.20 and other applicable disclosure law. For more 
information about FDA's posting of comments to public dockets, see 80 
FR 56469, September 18, 2015, or access the information at: http://www.fda.gov/regulatoryinformation/dockets/default.htm.: For access to 
the docket to read background documents or the electronic and written/
paper comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov and insert 
the docket number, found in brackets in the heading of this document, 
into the ``Search'' box and follow the prompts and/or go to the 
Division of Dockets Management, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, 
MD 20852.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Beverly Friedman, Office of Regulatory 
Policy, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 
51, Rm. 6250, Silver Spring, MD 20993, 301-796-3600.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    The Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984 
(Pub. L. 98-417) and the Generic Animal Drug and Patent Term 
Restoration Act (Pub. L. 100-670) generally provide that a patent may 
be extended for a period of up to 5 years so long as the patented item 
(human drug product, animal drug product, medical device, food 
additive, or color additive) was subject to regulatory review by FDA 
before the item was marketed. Under these acts, a product's regulatory 
review period forms the basis for determining the amount of extension 
an applicant may receive.
    A regulatory review period consists of two periods of time: A 
testing phase and an approval phase. For medical devices, the testing 
phase begins with a clinical investigation of the device and runs until 
the approval phase begins. The approval phase starts with the initial 
submission of an application to market the device and continues until 
permission to market the device is granted. Although only a portion of 
a regulatory review period may count toward the actual amount of 
extension that the Director of USPTO may award (half the testing phase 
must be subtracted as well as any time that may have occurred before 
the patent was issued), FDA's determination of the length of a 
regulatory review period for a medical device will include all of the 
testing phase and approval phase as specified in 35 U.S.C. 
156(g)(3)(B).
    FDA has approved for marketing the medical device ARGUS II VISUAL 
STIMULATION SYSTEM. ARGUS II VISUAL STIMULATION SYSTEM is indicated for 
patients aged 25 years and older with bare or no light perception 
vision caused by advanced retinitis pigmentosa. Subsequent to this 
approval, the USPTO received a patent term restoration application for 
ARGUS II VISUAL STIMULATION SYSTEM (U.S. Patent No. 7,668,599) from 
Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., and the USPTO requested FDA's 
assistance in determining this patent's eligibility for patent term 
restoration. In a letter dated May 22, 2014, FDA advised the USPTO that 
this medical device had undergone a regulatory review period and that 
the approval of ARGUS II VISUAL STIMULATION SYSTEM represented the 
first permitted commercial marketing or use of the product. Thereafter, 
the USPTO requested that FDA determine the product's regulatory review 
period.

[[Page 76699]]

II. Determination of Regulatory Review Period

    FDA has determined that the applicable regulatory review period for 
ARGUS II VISUAL STIMULATION SYSTEM is 2,282 days. Of this time, 1,630 
days occurred during the testing phase of the regulatory review period, 
while 652 days occurred during the approval phase. These periods of 
time were derived from the following dates:
    1. The date an exemption under section 520(g) of the Federal Food, 
Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the FD&C Act) (21 U.S.C. 360j(g)) involving 
this device became effective: November 17, 2006. The applicant claims 
that the investigational device exemption (IDE) required under section 
520(g) of the FD&C act for human tests to begin became effective on 
December 31, 2004. However, FDA records indicate that the IDE was 
determined substantially complete for clinical studies to have begun on 
November 17, 2006, which represents the IDE effective date.
    2. The date an application was initially submitted with respect to 
the device under section 515 of the FD&C Act (21 U.S.C. 360e): May 4, 
2011. The applicant claims May 3, 2011, as the date the humanitarian 
device exemption (HDE) for Argus II Visual Stimulation System (HDE 
H110002) was initially submitted. However, FDA records indicate that 
HDE H110002 was submitted on May 4, 2011.
    3. The date the application was approved: February 13, 2013. The 
applicant claims that HDE H110002 was approved on February 14, 2013. 
However, FDA records indicate that ARGUS II VISUAL STIMULATION SYSTEM 
was approved on February 13, 2013.
    This determination of the regulatory review period establishes the 
maximum potential length of a patent extension. However, the USPTO 
applies several statutory limitations in its calculations of the actual 
period for patent extension. In its application for patent extension, 
this applicant seeks 1,735 days of patent term extension.

III. Petitions

    Anyone with knowledge that any of the dates as published are 
incorrect may submit either electronic or written comments and ask for 
a redetermination (see DATES). Furthermore, any interested person may 
petition FDA for a determination regarding whether the applicant for 
extension acted with due diligence during the regulatory review period. 
To meet its burden, the petition must be timely (see DATES) and contain 
sufficient facts to merit an FDA investigation. (See H. Rept. 857, part 
1, 98th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 41-42, 1984.) Petitions should be in the 
format specified in 21 CFR 10.30.
    Submit petitions electronically to http://www.regulations.gov at 
Docket No. FDA-2013-S-0610. Submit written petitions (two copies are 
required) to the Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305), Food and 
Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. 
Petitions that have not been made publicly available on http://www.regulations.gov may be viewed in the Division of Dockets Management 
between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

    Dated: December 4, 2015.
Leslie Kux,
Associate Commissioner for Policy.
[FR Doc. 2015-31095 Filed 12-9-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4164-01-P


