In-Home Disposal Systems for Opioid Analgesics; Request for Information; Reopening of the Comment Period

AGENCY:

Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION:

Notice; reopening of the comment period.

SUMMARY:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA, Agency, or we) is reopening the comment period for the notice entitled “In-Home Disposal Systems for Opioid Analgesics; Request for Information” published in the Federal Register of April 4, 2023. FDA is reopening the comment period to allow interested persons additional time to develop and submit comments.

DATES:

FDA is reopening the comment period on the notice published April 4, 2023 (88 FR 19959). Either electronic or written comments must be submitted by November 6, 2023.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments as follows. Please note that late, untimely filed comments will not be considered. The https://www.regulations.gov electronic filing system will accept comments until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time at the end of November 6, 2023. Comments received by mail/hand delivery/courier (for written/paper submissions) will be considered timely if they are received on or before that date.

Electronic Submissions

Submit electronic comments in the following way:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Comments submitted electronically, including attachments, to https://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 https://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): Dockets Management Staff (HFA–305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.

• For written/paper comments submitted to the Dockets Management Staff, 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–2023–N–0917 for “In-Home Disposal Systems for Opioid Analgesics; Request for Information.” Received comments, those filed in a timely manner (see ADDRESSES ), will be placed in the docket and, except for those submitted as “Confidential Submissions,” publicly viewable at https://www.regulations.gov or at the Dockets Management Staff between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, 240–402–7500.

• 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 https://www.regulations.gov. Submit both copies to the Dockets Management Staff. 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: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2015-09-18/pdf/2015-23389.pdf.

Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or the electronic and written/paper comments received, go to https://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 Dockets Management Staff, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852, 240–402–7500.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Kimberly Lehrfeld, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 51, Rm. 6226, Silver Spring, MD 20993–0002, 301–796–3137, Kimberly.Lehrfeld@fda.hhs.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

In the Federal Register of April 4, 2023 (88 FR 19959), FDA published a notice requesting information and comments that will assist the Agency in assessing whether in-home disposal products can be expected to meet the public health goal of mitigating the risk of nonmedical use or overdose if the Agency were to require drug manufacturers to make in-home disposal products available to patients under a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy. The Agency requested information and comments on the issues that were discussed at the public workshop convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation entitled “Defining and Evaluating In-Home Disposal Systems for Opioid Analgesics” on June 26 and 27, 2023. Interested persons were originally given until August 28, 2023, to submit comments on in-home disposal systems for opioid analgesics.

FDA is reopening the public docket to allow interested persons additional time to submit comments. We note that there is a listening session on October 5, 2023, with federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes on the safe disposal of opioid analgesics. The Agency believes that reopening the comment period for an additional 45 days will allow adequate time for interested persons to submit comments without significantly delaying Agency decision-making on these important issues. FDA is reopening the comment period for 45 days, until November 6, 2023.