Title 21

SECTION 99.101

99.101 Information that may be disseminated.

§ 99.101 Information that may be disseminated.

(a) A manufacturer may disseminate written information concerning the safety, effectiveness, or benefit of a use not described in the approved labeling for an approved drug or device or in the statement of intended use for a cleared device, provided that the manufacturer complies with all other relevant requirements under this part. Such information shall:

(1) Be about a drug or device that has been approved, licensed, or cleared for marketing by FDA;

(2) Be in the form of:

(i) An unabridged reprint or copy of an article, peer-reviewed by experts qualified by scientific training or experience to evaluate the safety or effectiveness of the drug or device involved, which was published in a scientific or medical journal. In addition, the article must be about a clinical investigation with respect to the drug or device and must be considered to be scientifically sound by the experts described in this paragraph; or

(ii) An unabridged reference publication that includes information about a clinical investigation with respect to the drug or device, which experts qualified by scientific training or experience to evaluate the safety or effectiveness of the drug or device that is the subject of the clinical investigation would consider to be scientifically sound;

(3) Not pose a significant risk to the public health;

(4) Not be false or misleading. FDA may consider information disseminated under this part to be false or misleading if, among other things, the information includes only favorable publications when unfavorable publications exist or excludes articles, reference publications, or other information required under § 99.103(a)(4) or the information presents conclusions that clearly cannot be supported by the results of the study; and

(5) Not be derived from clinical research conducted by another manufacturer unless the manufacturer disseminating the information has the permission of such other manufacturer to make the dissemination.

(b) For purposes of this part:

(1) FDA will find that all journal articles and reference publications (as those terms are defined in § 99.3) are scientifically sound except:

(i) Letters to the editor;

(ii) Abstracts of a publication;

(iii) Those regarding Phase 1 trials in healthy people;

(iv) Flagged reference publications that contain little or no substantive discussion of the relevant clinical investigation; and

(v) Those regarding observations in four or fewer people that do not reflect any systematic attempt to collect data, unless the manufacturer demonstrates to FDA that such reports could help guide a physician in his/her medical practice.

(2) A reprint or copy of an article or reference publication is “unabridged” only if it retains the same appearance, form, format, content, or configuration as the original article or publication. Such reprint, copy of an article, or reference publication shall not be disseminated with any information that is promotional in nature. A manufacturer may cite a particular discussion about a new use in a reference publication in the explanatory or other information attached to or otherwise accompanying the reference publication under § 99.103.

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