OTP Type A Meetings

Type A Meetings are reserved for discussions necessary for an otherwise stalled product development program to proceed or to address an important safety issue.

However, disagreement with OTP, for example, does not necessarily constitute a stalled program.

Submission of Type A Meeting Requests to OTP

The sponsor should submit the meeting request as an amendment to the existing IND. The meeting request should include a list of the specific objectives of the meeting and a list of questions grouped by discipline, e.g., Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC), pharmacology / toxicology, clinical, statistical.

OTP does not send an acknowledgement email or letter following OTP’s receipt of a meeting request. However, by the timelines described in Table 3, OTP will send the decision to grant or deny the meeting request, along with the meeting date, if granted, or reasons for denial.

Table 3: Timelines for Type A Meetings

OTP Response to Meeting Request**	14 days from receipt
Meeting Scheduling or WRO Issued***	30 days from receipt
Meeting Package Due to OTP	At the time of request
Meeting Length Granted	60 minutes
OTP Preliminary Response to Questions in the Package to Sponsor	NLT* 2 days before the meeting
Sponsor’s Response to FDA Preliminary Response	NLT than 24 hours before the meeting

*NLT – No Later Than
Source: Table 3 information from the Formal Meetings Between the FDA & Sponsors or Applicants of PDUFA Products Guidance for Industry
**Calendar days from FDA receipt of the meeting request to the date that OTP will respond with the decision to grant or deny the meeting, as well as specifying the format and date of the meeting, if granted.
*** Calendar days from FDA receipt of the meeting request to date the meeting will be held, or the WRO will be issued.

Meeting Package for Type A Meetings

Number of Questions

• The sponsor’s meeting package should include a limited number of clearly worded and targeted questions that directly address the FDA action that is stalling the sponsor’s product development. The number of questions in a meeting package should not exceed what can be reasonably discussed within the duration of the allotted meeting time. For a 60-minute meeting, a maximum of 10 questions (inclusive of sub-questions) would be considered reasonable. For example, Questions 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 2, and 3 would be 6 questions.

  Written Response Only (WRO) is considered to be equivalent to 60-minute meetings. Therefore, the maximum of 10 questions (inclusive of sub-questions) is applicable.

Size of Meeting Package

• It is important to include background information sufficient to support the questions in the package. OTP may cancel a meeting if the meeting package is grossly inadequate and does not contain sufficient information to enable FDA to address the questions. However, voluminous meeting packages are discouraged. Meeting packages are typically 50–100 pages. OTP will not commit to reviewing packages greater than 250-300 pages or answering questions that require review of this much material.

Timing of Meeting Package Submission

• Type A meeting package should be submitted at the time of the meeting request, as described in the Formal Meetings Between the FDA & Sponsors or Applicants of PDUFA Products Guidance for Industry and indicated above in Table 3.

Reasons for Type A Meeting Denial

OTP grants Type A meeting requests if the criteria are met (See Section III.A in Formal Meetings Between the FDA & Sponsors or Applicants of PDUFA Products Guidance for Industry for details).

A Type A meeting may be denied if:

• The request does not meet the criteria for a Type A meeting (e.g., no FDA action is stalling the sponsor’s product development).
  • If OTP agrees that a meeting should be held, but the meeting does not meet the criteria for a Type A meeting, OTP will grant the meeting as a Type B, C or D, as appropriate. 
• No meeting package is submitted with the request or the package is not sufficient to allow OTP to answer the sponsor’s questions.
• The intended purpose of the meeting is to obtain OTP feedback on the sponsor’s plan/approach to resolve clinical hold deficiencies, but the sponsor has not yet attempted to resolve the issues by submitting a complete response to hold. OTP does not pre-review complete responses to hold (CRH) in a Type A meeting or by email.

Best Practices for Managing Type A Meetings with OTP

Prior to the Sponsor Meeting

• OTP will send the preliminary response according to the timeline indicated above in Table 3.
• The sponsor is expected to respond to OTP’s preliminary responses according to the timeline indicated above in Table 3.
• If the sponsor finds that OTP’s preliminary responses and advice are sufficiently clear and complete to obviate the need for further discussion, the sponsor should inform OTP in writing as soon as possible so that OTP may cancel the meeting. These responses would then become the official OTP responses to the sponsor’s questions.
  • If, after cancellation of the meeting, the sponsor wishes to seek clarification on the preliminary responses, the sponsor may submit a request for clarification. Find out more about Requests for Clarification.
• If the sponsor wishes to continue with the meeting, the sponsor should identify which of the original questions in the briefing package they wish to discuss and prioritize the questions in the order of importance to the sponsor.  When referencing questions, the sponsor should use OTP’s preliminary responses document numbering format.
• After receiving OTP’s preliminary response, the sponsor should not submit new questions and new information (e.g., alternative approaches or new proposals to address OTP comments) that were not previously submitted in the original briefing package. OTP preliminary responses are prepared after deliberative review, and usually include cross discipline internal discussion, based on the original meeting package and questions.  OTP will not have adequate time to review new material and have sufficient inter-discipline internal discussion necessary to prepare answers to new questions.  Therefore, sponsors should thoughtfully prepare their meeting package and questions.
  • In some situations, a sponsor may want to develop new questions/alternative approaches in response to OTP’s preliminary responses or discussion at the meeting.  Such new questions/alternative approaches should be submitted as an amendment to the sponsor’s existing IND.

During the Type A Meeting

• The meeting is the sponsor’s opportunity to obtain clarifications on OTP preliminary responses. As stated above, during the meeting the OTP team will not be able to provide feedback on new information (e.g., new question, alternative approaches or new proposals to address OTP comments) that was not previously submitted in the original briefing package.
• Sponsors may choose to make a presentation at the beginning of the meeting. However, because OTP staff will be familiar with the meeting package content and questions, OTP recommends that sponsors forgo a presentation and use the allotted meeting time to obtain clarifications to OTP’s preliminary responses to the sponsor’s questions.
• OTP recommends that time be reserved at the end of the meeting for the sponsor to summarize the major discussion points and action items.

Meeting Summary

• OTP will issue the meeting summary within 30 calendar days after the meeting.  OTP’s meeting summary is the official and final record of the meeting.  The OTP meeting summary is not a meeting transcript, but focuses on any clarifications (e.g., of unclear preliminary responses), agreements and disagreements, and action items as discussed during the meeting.
• The sponsor may submit their version of the summary to the file to summarize their understanding of issues discussed at the meeting. However, OTP may not review such submissions; therefore, the absence of an OTP response to such submissions does not imply OTP concurrence with the sponsor’s version of the meeting summary.
• If sponsors disagree with the content of OTP’s meeting summary, OTP’s meeting summary will not be altered except to correct a substantive mistake for the record (on extremely rare occasions).

Requests for Clarification

A request for clarification may be sought after a Type A meeting, to ensure the requestor’s understanding of OTP's feedback provided in a preliminary response (if the formal meeting was canceled), meeting summary or written response issued by OTP.  

Find out more about Requests for Clarification