Bringing the Patient Voice into Medical Product Development
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Patient input is a critical part of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research’s (CBER) understanding of diseases and conditions. Engaging with patients and listening to their perspectives on their diseases and treatments may help the Center advance patient-focused medical product development. Patient engagement, and the development and application of patient input methods are included in the CBER 2021-2025 Strategic Plan (Objectives 1.2, 1.3, and 2.2). Supported by provisions in both the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016, the Food and Drug Administration Reauthorization Act of 2017 and the Prescription Drug User Fee Act VII CBER’s patient engagement program is committed to incorporating patient involvement in the Center’s regulatory work.
CBER supports Agency-wide efforts to advance patient engagement and patient-focused medical product development
CBER interacts with patient groups on Center-specific topics and actively engages in Agency programs, initiatives, and events to gather patient input and share best practices for involving patients in medical product development and regulation. CBER’s patient engagement program collaborates closely with the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), the Office of the Commissioner and other FDA offices and programs to coordinate patient engagement activities and patient-focused medical product development efforts, and to share best practices.
Programs at CBER that support advancement of patient engagement and patient-focused medical product development include CBER’s Science of Patient Input (SPI) initiative and CBER’s Rare Disease program. SPI initiative activities include supporting studies on methods and tools to obtain robust patient input to support biological product regulatory reviews and providing CBER reviewers with assistance in the regulatory review of patient input and patient-reported outcomes data. CBER’s Rare Disease program works to facilitate the incorporation of the patient perspective in regulatory decision making for biologics for rare diseases.
CBER collaborates with FDA offices and patient engagement teams on cross-cutting patient engagement meetings, workshops, and activities:
CBER Engagement with Patient Organizations
CBER engages patient organizations on disease- and therapy-specific issues.
CBER staff make every effort, subject to staff resources and availability, to hear directly from patients about the burden of disease, the impact of treatment on patients, and other information that could inform regulatory decision making. This includes:
CBER’s Office of Therapeutic Products workshops, webinars, town halls and meetings help to broaden public understanding of regenerative medicine therapy and educate patients and patient advocacy groups about regenerative medicine therapies.
Workshops, webinars, listening meetings
Town halls for product development stakeholders
For Practitioners
Meetings between patient organizations and CBER staff present opportunities to enhance CBER’s understanding of disease burden and the impact of treatment on patients. These meetings may also help to inform efforts by patient organizations working to advance drug development such as developing or conducting natural history studies or patient input studies to support medical product development.
To request a meeting with CBER staff, a representative from a patient organization can email CBERPatientEngagement@fda.hhs.gov. CBER will review requests and make every effort to hear directly from patient organizations according to staff availability and resources.
If a patient organization requests a meeting with topic that applies to more than one medical product type, the organization can submit a request through the Patients: Ask FDA page. Patients: Ask FDA can also help patient organizations that are unsure which FDA center or program to contact about engaging with FDA.
- Natural history studies
- Patient-reported outcomes studies
- Patient surveys on risks, benefits, and preferences related to treatments
- Chief complaints (most bothersome signs and symptoms)
- Burden of living with and managing a disease or condition
- Impacts from a disease or condition on activities of daily living and functioning
- Expectations of benefits
- Tolerance for harms or risks
- Patient preference
- Unmet medical needs
- E.g., views on various therapies, such as gene therapy
- Burden of participating in clinical studies
- Risk tolerance
