The article compares and contrasts the regulatory requirements for herbal medicinal products (HMPs), herbal-based medical devices and botanical food supplements in the EU. It is part 2 of a two-part article – Part 1 presented the definitions, main regulations, and documentation requirements for placing the products on the market; Part 2 will address quality, the strength of evidence supporting the safety and efficacy, and postmarket surveillance (PMS) requirements across...

A European generics trade association is calling for relaxation of “extreme cost containment policies” against generic medicines, asserting that such measures are counterproductive and may endanger the supply chain through consolidation of production and withdrawal or products from the market.   “The European Commission has collected a growing body of evidence showing that extreme cost containment policies applied to generic medicines are counterproductive, driving ind...

The International Council for Harmonization’s (ICH) Q6B guideline setting acceptance criteria for new biological products needs to be revised to incorporate a more patient-centric approach and to include the science and risk-based concepts embodied in other ICH guidelines, according to a regulator from the EU.   Mats Welin, a senior expert for vaccines and monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) for the Swedish Medical Products Agency, made this assertion at the 30 November webi...

Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US Biden says omicron variant is cause for concern but not panic ( NPR ) CDC Statement on B.1.1.529 (Omicron variant) ( CDC ) Pfizer boosts Paxlovid manufacturing capacity as Merck’s rival COVID pill hits surprise efficacy setback ( Fierce ) Opinion: Becerra needs to open up to the press ( AHCJ ) Opinion: Will Moderna Ever Learn to Share? ( MedPage Today ) Who ...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hasn’t been notifying most clinical trial sponsors they are in violation of reporting requirements.   That’s according to results of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) investigation by Reshma Ramachandran, of the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT, and colleagues in a recent Viewpoint published in JAMA .   In January 2017, a final rule issued by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) determining ClinicalTrials.go...

The US and EU require sponsors to evaluate their drugs for use in children. The low prevalence of many conditions in children means sponsors commonly want to conduct one pediatric development program that satisfies the requirements of both the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA). However, multiregional pediatric development is challenging. This article will describe some of the challenges associated with pediatric development, offer po...

For drugs and biologics that receive accelerated approval, could information drawn from real-world data sources supplant traditional postapproval clinical trials to confirm that the therapies have benefit? Real-world data (RWD) are not yet robust enough to confirm the benefit of drugs awarded accelerated approval based on surrogate endpoints, answered the authors of a recent study.   “The findings of this cross-sectional study suggest that none of the 50 [Food and Drug...

Friends of Cancer Research is calling on all stakeholders in the cancer community to move away from the idea of “more is better” in drug dosing and begin to incorporate dose-finding studies into the cancer trial process.   Dose optimization is the focus of a new white paper that the group released at its 25 th annual meeting. The paper offers recommendations for performing adequate dose optimization studies in oncology, with a focus on the pre-market setting. “These...

This article discusses the considerations for designing and conducting pediatric clinical trials from a pediatrician’s perspective. The author covers pediatric subpopulations, issues related to age, endpoints, and pharmacokinetic considerations, while presenting practical solutions and ethical considerations. Patient and family‒centric approach to studies and engagement with patient advocacy groups are also discussed. The author concludes with some recommendations about pe...

Over the last decade, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada (HC) have gotten better at disclosing previously confidential clinical data, a study published in The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics has found.     However, each agency discloses this data in a variety of different ways, according to Alexander C. Egilman, with the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation at Yale–New Haven Hospital in New Haven, CT,...

A new guidance document from the European Commission’s Medical Device Coordination Group (MDCG) spells out how the newly implemented Medical Device Regulation (MDR) will be applied to legacy devices and devices placed on the market prior to the 26 May 2021 MDR rollout.   In the guidance , MDCG takes the position that the MDR’s post-market surveillance, market surveillance, and vigilance requirements apply to legacy devices. The surveillance of legacy devices by notifi...

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) recently released its final programming document for 2021 to 2023, setting goals to address medicine availability and shortages, analysis and access to healthcare data, supply chain issues, and antimicrobial resistance.   Emer Cooke, EMA Executive Director, stated in the document’s foreword that much of the agency’s planning over the next few years will be accomplished by implementing the EMA Network Strategy and Regulatory Science S...