Industry groups are raising some serious questions with the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) proposal to release emerging safety signals to the public even before those signals have been substantiated. In January, FDA released draft guidance outlining how it plans to track and release early signals on medical device safety. The release of such information is expected to be for concerns that have yet to be fully analyzed, validated or confirmed by the agency and ...

At the November meeting on the fourth iteration of the Medical Device User Fee Act (MDUFA IV), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and industry representatives both unveiled new performance targets for de novo submissions, pre-submissions and third-party 510(k) reviews. The MDUFA IV proposal package, which would take effect in 2017, includes the goals of maintaining the MDUFA III FDA performance targets for 510(k) and premarket approval (PMA) submissions, though ...

At the second meeting focused on the fourth iteration of the Medical Device User Fee Agreements (MDUFA) for 2017, both the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and industry reiterated agreement that the program overall has improved and is heading in a positive direction. The negotiations center on the use of a system whereby medical device companies pay fees to FDA to register their establishments and list their devices with the agency. The fees help FDA increase the ef...

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has placed methylone, a powerful stimulant and psychoactive drug most notorious for its presence in bath salts, into its Schedule I of highly restricted drugs with no accepted medical use within the US. The drug is chemically similar to other drugs like Ecstasy (MDMA), which has been a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) since 1985. DEA's actions would act to put into place a more permanent solution, o...