Updated 29 September to add comment from CDRH official The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued final guidance on improving patient information regarding breast implants on 28 September. The final guidance largely echoes draft labeling guidance issued in October 2019, with some clarifications surrounding the relationship between implants and systemic disease, language to improve the readability of the patient device card, and information on specific registries...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today issued warning letters to two breast implant manufacturers, Allergan and Ideal Implant. Each company was cited for different deficiencies. "The FDA's actions today are part of the agency's ongoing commitment to its public health mission of ensuring patient access to safe and effective medical devices," FDA officials said in a statement. "The FDA remains committed to thoughtful, scientific, transparent, public dialogue conc...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent warning letters this week to two breast implant manufacturers over their failures to comply with FDA’s post-approval study (PAS) requirements. The warning letters were made public by FDA late Tuesday and sent to Sientra and Mentor Worldwide on Monday for being in violation of two of the seven requirements established as part of their devices’ conditional approvals. They underscore an emerging FDA enforcement trend around PA...

Swissmedic said Monday that based on the currently available information, the association Swiss Plastic Surgery recommends using smooth implants rather than textured implants where permitted by the clinical situation. France’s National Agency of Medicine and Health Products (ANSM) echoed that recommendation after observing most known breast implant associated-anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL) cases in patients with textured breast implants. But the committee doe...

In a 14-violation US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning letter, the agency flagged a doctor’s website for significant deviations from FDA quality system requirements and good manufacturing practices (GMP), as well as illegally marketing an unapproved device for a complication of breast implants. The warning letter was issued to Mark Berman of Beverly Hills, California for marketing the implantable Pocket Protector device online with claims and use indications ...

Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) opened a consultation on Monday to obtain feedback on its proposal to reclassify all spinal implantable medical devices to a higher risk level. The consultation describes the reasoning behind changing the current Class IIb classification of medium-high risk on spinal implants to Class III under a new classification rule. It comes as part of an effort to align Australia’s regulatory requirements with the new framework of...

The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) on Monday raised key questions about the effectiveness of Cartiva’s first-of-its-kind synthetic cartilage implant, which is intended to treat osteoarthritis pain in the first joint of the big toe. The implant, which is made of an organic polymer-based biomaterial comprised of polyvinyl alcohol and saline, is designed to work in a manner similar to how biologic cartilage works, ...

A legal battle in Germany to determine responsibility in the aftermath of the Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) breast implant scandal will be put on hold while a German court asks for clarification from the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Deutsche Welle reports. Background For many years, PIP was one of the largest producers of silicone breast implants. However, after it came to light that the company used industrial-grade silicone in its implants, the company shut ...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is granting labelers of certain types of implantable medical devices a temporary reprieve from its upcoming requirements that all medical device products be marked with a unique device identifier (UDI) meant to make the devices safer. Background A UDI is, as its name implies, a system of identifying each medical device using a specific system. The system has a number of allures for regulators. "The unique device identification ...

The former CEO of a now-disgraced manufacturer of breast implants that was accused of willfully misleading regulatory officials for years has been found guilty by a French court and sentenced to four years in Jail. Background Jean-Claude Mas, former CEO of the now-defunct manufacturer Poly Implant Prothese (PIP), was accused in 2010 of distributing hundreds of thousands of breast implant products made with deficient, industrial-grade silicone without the approval of reg...

The European Commission has released the text of a long-awaited follow-up opinion regarding the safety of breast implants manufactured by the now-defunct Poly Implant Prothese (PIP), a French manufacturer whose products ignited a firestorm of controversy over the safety of medical devices in the EU after they were found to have been manufactured to deficient standards. Background The PIP scandal erupted in late 2011, when regulators determined that the company had bee...

The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has announced that four National Health Service hospitals have agreed to pilot a new tracking system for high risk medical devices.  The goal of the tracking system, one of 11 projects established by the agency in response to the Poly Implant Prothèse silicone breast implant issue, is to improve the monitoring of medical devices such as breast implants, heart valves and pacemakers. The new...