Medtronic and Monteris Medical are suggesting procedural techniques to reduce unintended thermal damage linked to their magnetic resonance-guided laser interstitial thermal therapy devices, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Thursday.   The agency summarized the new information from both medical device manufacturers and provided updated recommendations in two letters to health care providers. Medtronic issued three advisory letters between June and August t...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued a safety alert to inform that EpiPen manufacturer, Pfizer, has become aware that the label sticker on certain auto-injectors “may have been improperly applied, causing resistance when removing it from the carrier tube.”   The safety alert affects Mylan’s EpiPen 0.3 mg and EpiPen Jr 0.15 mg containing labeled expiries on both the devices and cartons between June 2018 and February 2020 and between October 2018 a...

In a letter to manufacturers of pen needles designed to be used with injectors, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) called for labeling updates to address the adverse events associated with improper patient use.   The request comes after the agency became aware of the reported incidents of hyperglycemia, diabetic ketoacidosis and at least one patient death through medical device reports and FDA’s adverse ev...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday issued draft guidance providing recommendations on completing certain portions of the Highlights section of labeling for prescription drugs and biologics. Specifically, the guidance details the content and format of the Product Title and Initial US Approval subsections within the Highlights of Prescribing Information for newly approved drugs and drugs with labels being revised. In 2006, FDA's final rule on the conten...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday issued a draft guidance encouraging drugmakers to provide detailed labeling about whether their products are made from ingredients that contain gluten. FDA says the guidance is meant to reduce uncertainty about the presence of wheat gluten in oral drugs, and that unless a drug specifically contains wheat gluten or wheat flour as an ingredient, that it expects that most drugs would contain less wheat gluten than a glute...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday finalized guidance from 2013 on prescription drug product name placement, size, prominence and frequency in promotional labeling and advertisements for human prescription drugs. FDA said it received one comment on the revised draft guidance, and in addition to a title change and editorial changes made primarily for clarification, the guidance has been revised to clarify certain concepts discussed in the revised dr...

This article summarizes several key provisions introduced by FDA's new Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels rule with a specific focus on their effect on the development and marketing of dietary supplements. Potential implications of the new requirements and changes are presented and suggestions are provided for managing various aspects of the new rule. Introduction On 27 May 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published in the Federal Register its final...

This article discusses the changing landscape for promotional review regarding the shift in evidentiary standards introduced in the 2017 Draft Guidance. It also highlights industry perspectives for consideration to companies looking to apply the principles outlined in the Draft Guidance or in preview to what could be addressed in a future revision. Introduction Regulatory advertising and promotion professionals are accustomed to working amidst ambiguity or in the gray...

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Monday updated its annex to the European Commission's guideline on excipient labeling, adding five new excipients and expanding the safety warnings required for 10 others. Excipients are defined as any part of a drug other than the active pharmaceutical ingredient. Most excipients are thought to be inactive, though some can cause reactions in certain circumstances. For instance, lactose is commonly used as a filler in drug tablets, ...

This article focuses on the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) draft guidance as it impacts prescription drug promotion and offers examples regarding information considered consistent with labeling. It emphasizes the need for regulatory professionals to better understand and adhere to FDA's evidentiary standards by utilizing examples of the Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP), formerly Division of Drug Marketing and Communications, enforcement actions tha...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday published draft guidance to help ensure child-resistant packaging (CRP) statements in drug labels is clear, useful, informative and, to the extent possible, consistent in content and format. The draft, now open for comments, is meant to assist applicants, manufacturers, packagers and distributors in determining what information should be included to support the CRP statements. Background Child-resistant pack...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday announced the safety labeling changes (SLC) program will be managed by its Center for Drug Evaluation and Research’s (CDER’s) Office of Communications (OCOMM), which has created a new database that provides data to the public in downloadable and searchable formats. “With this transition, safety labeling change (SLC) data on the Web will now be available much faster for health care providers, health information technol...