Expediting Drug Development: FDA’s New Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy Designation

In March 2017, the US FDA introduced the new Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation thus recognizing the enormous potential of these medicines and the need for efficient regulatory tools to accelerate their development and their commercial availability. The development of regenerative medicines is very challenging because of their complex and unique nature, especially to the rather unexperienced small- and medium-sized developing enterprises. With the new RMAT designation, FDA aims at providing intensive support to companies developing cell- and tissue-based therapies, tissue-engineering products, and combination treatments. This may also include cell-based products where the genome has been edited by emerging technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9. This article presents the newly launched “Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy” (RMAT) designation, outlines existing FDA regulatory tools aiming at expediting approval, and discusses the overall value of these programs. Additionally, recommendations are provided for companies developing these very specific and complex therapies on how and when to consider these tools for an integrated development and regulatory strategy.