Freedom of Information Act Access to an Investigational New Drug Application

We report our experience working with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to obtain access to an abandoned investigational new drug (IND) application and subsequent application documents submitted by Hoffman-La Roche, Inc. to the agency. Contrary to others’ experience and in response to our specific request, FDA provided the IND application number and 464 pages of relevant material, including the initial pharmacology review by the agency and an annual report consisting of an investigational drug brochure, clinical study protocol and amendments and detailing clinical experience with drug treatment. It may be possible to bring application files of additional drugs previously submitted to the agency into the public record to help bolster repurposing efforts and realize our shared public interest in benefiting from previous human clinical studies.