What is pre-application assistance?

Pre-application assistance (PAA) is designed to give applicants the opportunity to obtain technical advice before submitting an application and reduce uncertainty for a specific prospective application.

PAA is provided on a fee-for-service basis which can take the form of a written response, a face-to-face meeting or a teleconference.

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) will not assess data, including undertaking formulation comparisons, as part of a PAA.

Applicants intending to submit a timeshift application must submit a PAA in order to develop an agreed project plan for their application. This includes project plans for Global Joint Reviews.

Applicants intending to submit primary and secondary applications are encouraged to seek PAA to confirm the inter-relationship between applications and the appropriate level of assessment for each of the secondary applications.

The fees charged for PAA directly relate to the complexity and effort required and have been divided into 3 tiers.

Tier one

This tier is designed to support the early stages of preparing an application such as guidance and clarification on the types of assessments necessary for the proposed application.

A tier one PAA has a one-month timeframe. Meetings are not available for tier one.

Tier one assistance can provide advice on:

Tier two

This is used for technical advice to support a particular application and to give applicants greater confidence that their proposed submission will contain relevant information to address the safety, efficacy and trade criteria.

There is a 2-month timeframe for tier two and it can include a meeting if needed.

Tier two assistance can provide advice on:

  • types of supporting data or information appropriate to the application
  • relevance or suitability of overseas data and/or assessment reports
  • the types of trials needed to generate appropriate data
  • a scientific matter relevant to an application
  • the development of an agreed project plan for a timeshift (Item 27) application
  • specific aspects of the design of a study or trial.

Tier three

This advice level can include an appraisal of a specific study design and finalisation of project plans for Global Joint Reviews.

There is a 3-month timeframe for tier three and it can include a meeting if needed.

Advice provided can include:

Note: advice provided about the adequacy of trial protocols does not guarantee that the data generated from the study will satisfy the statutory criteria.