Thanks to a 2007 regulation on advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs), the European Commission (EC) on Wednesday released new guidelines on the good clinical practice (GCP) requirements for these complex and innovative products that can include gene and cell therapies. The 15-page guidelines discuss clinical trial design, non-clinical studies, quality of the investigational ATMPs, the safe conduct of the clinical trial, upstream interventions on subjects and admini...

The European Commission’s Medical Device Coordination Group (MDCG) on Friday released guidance to help medical software manufacturers understand the criteria for the qualification of software under the new EU Medical Devices Regulation (MDR) and In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation (IVDR). The guidance discusses certain types of software that would be classified under MDR or IVDR, such as software that can directly control a (hardware) medical device (e.g. radiotherapy treatm...

The European Commission’s Medical Device Coordination Group (MDCG) on Friday released guidance to further explain Article 120(2) of the EU Medical Devices Regulation (MDR), which says that certificates issued in accordance with the previous device directives will remain valid until 27 May 2024. The MDCG notes that Article 120(3) of MDR establishes that the notified body that issued a device certificate continues to be responsible for the appropriate device surveillance ...

The European Commission’s Medical Device Coordination Group recently released guidance to help manufacturers create a new summary of safety and clinical performance (SSCP), as required by the EU’s Medical Devices Regulation (MDR) for implantable devices and for class III devices that are not custom-made or investigational. The SSCP, which will be validated by a notified body (NB) and made publicly available via the EU database on devices known as Eudamed, is expected to...

The European Commission on Thursday announced that Germany’s TÜV Rheinland is the fifth notified body (NB) to be designated under the EU’s Medical Devices Regulation (MDR). A TÜV Rheinland spokesperson told Focus that beginning tomorrow, "we are accepting applications under MDR. We have also applied under IVDR [in vitro diagnostic regulation]. Our JAT [joint assessment team] audit under IVDR is scheduled to be during the first week of December and we expect to have ou...

The European Commission (EC) on Wednesday published an implementing decision on how new medical device expert panels will be designated under the Medical Devices Regulation (MDR) and In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation (IVDR). The panels will provide scientific, technical and clinical assistance to the EC, the Medical Device Coordination Group (MDCG), member states, notified bodies and device manufacturers. In particular, the implementing decision notes that notified bodies ...

European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen unveiled her new team of commissioners-designate this week, including the addition of Stella Kyriakides, a medical psychologist from Cyprus, to lead the health portfolio. Moving forward, Kyriakides’s leadership will be crucial in the implementation of the EU Medical Devices Regulation (MDR), which has a looming implementation deadline next May, and the In Vitro Diagnostics Regulation (IVDR), which has an implement...

The European Commission (EC) on Tuesday added Milan, Italy-based IMQ Istituto to its list of notified bodies (NBs) designated under the new Medical Devices Regulation (MDR). The announcement does not come as a surprise, as Italy’s Ministry of Health announced in late July that IMQ met the requirements of the regulation. The EC had also previously indicated in its rolling plan,  updated last Monday , that four NBs have been designated. The other three NBs to be de...

The European Commission announced on Wednesday that Germany-based Dekra Certification GmbH is the third notified body (NB) to be designated under the Medical Devices Regulation (MDR). Dekra joins Germany-based TÜV SÜD  and BSI UK as the only NBs to be designated and listed in the European Commission’s New Approach Notified and Designated Organisations (NANDO) database. A fourth NB is expected to be announced soon, as the MDR/IVDR implementation rolling plan, updated...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Friday said they have now fully implemented a plan that will allow member state regulators and FDA to mutually rely on each other’s good manufacturing practice (GMP) inspections of drug facilities. In addition to helping reduce redundancies in manufacturing inspections, the implementation of the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) means that beginning Friday, pharmaceutical companies can sto...

The European Commission (EC) on Monday released one new guidance on persons responsible for regulatory compliance under the Medical Device Regulation (MDR) and the in vitro Diagnostic Device Regulation (IVDR), and another guidance on the implant card required by MDR. Under Article 15 of MDR and IVDR, companies are required to have at least one employee responsible for regulatory compliance with a degree in law, medicine, pharmacy, engineering or another relevant scien...

The European Parliament on Wednesday voted through a proposal to allow manufacturing waivers to supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) by an overwhelming majority, with more than 75% of members voting in favor of the measure.   In the EU, SPCs extend the 20-year patent protection period for medicines by adding up to five additional years of market exclusivity to approved drugs and biologics. The additional exclusivity period is meant to compensate for the lapse b...