The International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA) has issued a broad set of recommendations outlining how regulators and industry can set up track and trace systems that are globally aligned to ensure counterfeit or falsified products do not infiltrate supply chains.   The report , which was issued by a joint regulators/industry working group, explores the technical features that would allow for interoperable national and regional track and trace...

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) in the healthcare industry has resulted in a proliferation of novel health technologies with intuitive features. However, the regulatory landscape for such innovative products has yet to be fully understood. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a discussion paper on AI- and machine learning (ML)‒based software as a medical device (SaMD) in April 2019, which led to the release of an action plan that incorporated stak...

Remote audits conducted by notified bodies have been successful in ensuring that medical device manufacturers are complying with the EU’s Medical Device Regulation and In Vitro Diagnostics Regulation, according to a recently conducted survey  of 46 notified bodies, with remote audits uncovering roughly the same number of deficiencies as onsite audits.   The survey was conducted by the European Association of Medical Device Notified Bodies (TEAM NB), located in Liège...

An initiative by the European Commission (EC) to boost the development of pediatric drugs and medicines for people with rare diseases has received stakeholder feedback that in many cases expresses concern with the proposed upending of the status quo.   A 60-day period of public consultation for the initiative’s roadmap closed at the end of July; in all, 112 comments were received from individuals, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), public authorities, medical socie...

The European Commission (EC) has affirmed that it plans to launch the Clinical Trials Information System by the end of January 2022, as part of its broader efforts to modernize and streamline the conduct and oversight of clinical trials in the EU.   “The pandemic has clearly shown the importance of efficient clinical trials that do not compromise on rigorous safety and efficacy standards,” said Stella Kyriakides, EC commissioner for health and food safety, speaking o...

Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US Pfizer sells $7.8 billion in Covid shots in the second quarter, raises 2021 guidance on vaccine sales ( CNBC ) AstraZeneca castoff draws $123M wager on CXCR2 antagonist as Arena lines up a buyout option ( Endpoints ) Opinion: US FDA Should Take Its Time With COVID Vaccine BLAs ( Pink Sheet ) Biden Is Considering A Vaccine Or Testing Mandate For Federal Workers...

An updated reflection paper from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) tackles how statistics should be used in drug development when a comparative assessment of quality attributes needs to be made.   The paper touches on issues that arise both in the development of small molecules and in work being done in the area of biosimilars, where tricky manufacturing challenges and mutable organic molecules make defining the concept of “similarity” a challenge.   EMA’s human ...

Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US How Biogen found a believer: At the FDA, a hard-nosed regulator was won over on controversial Alzheimer’s drug ( STAT ) AbbVie hits go on $1B re-upped Calico deal as the Google life science spin-out continues I-O, neuro push ( Fierce ) Biden wants to bolster the pharma supply chain. A major generic plant closing may make that harder ( STAT ) CDC to reverse ind...

Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US At the FDA’s urging, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are expanding their studies of children 5 to 11 ( NYT ) Bristol Myers withdraws Opdivo in liver cancer as fallout from FDA meeting continues ( Biopharma Dive ) Shelling out $5B+, PerkinElmer pays the big bucks for antibody and reagent player ( Endpoints ) House Democrats expand probe into political interference ...

The human medicines committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended two new medicines for approval during its July meeting; the committee also recommended four extensions of therapeutic indication and issued a negative opinion on one medicine.   Genzyme’s Nexviadyme (avalglucosidase alfa) was recommended by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) to treat glycogen storage disease type II, also known as Pompe disease. Nexviadyme had receiv...

The European Commission (EC) has pruned the list of COVID-19-related research projects it plans to fund, announcing Thursday a short list of 11 projects that will receive €120 million in total.   Funding for the projects will come from Horizon Europe, a research and innovation program that launched in 2021 and is planned to sunset by 2027. The program supports “urgent research” into COVID-19 with a focus on the emerging threats of variants of SARS-CoV-2, according to...

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on the paradox surrounding the inclusion of pregnant and breastfeeding women in medical research. Even when these women are at higher risk for severe illness and hospitalization, they are unlikely to be included in clinical trials for medical products and vaccines. In a recent article, officials at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) signaled their commitment to work with industry and other regulators to support the inclus...