Welcome to 2021’s last issue of This Week at FDA. This week saw a year-end flurry of device classifications; we are also sharing news of three noteworthy device warning letters and a citizen petition response that closes with FDA’s referring a firm to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for anticompetitive practices.    RAPS offices are closed 23 December – 2 January. Regulatory Focus will resume publication on 3 January. From our team to you, our valued readers, best...

The European Commission has issued rules outlining the circumstances in which medical device instructions for use (IFU) can be provided in electronic form, rather than in paper form.   The implementing regulation , issued on 14 December, brings the European Union into alignment with device regulators in the US, Australia, and other nations, which already allow electronic labeling/IFU for certain medical devices. (RELATED: TGA Offers Guidance on Electronic Instructio...

  Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US Former FDA commissioners endorse Califf as head of agency, citing urgency of addressing omicron ( WaPo ) Califf goes to Congress ( POLITICO ) Moderna, Amgen among biotech heavyweights pulling out of JPM conference over Covid concerns ( STAT ) US FDA’s Woodcock Sees Clinical Trial Reform Coming, But ‘Not Wholly Optimistic’ ( Pink Sheet ) Pfizer says its Co...

Happy Friday – this week we’re juggling lots of end-of-year activity from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Today and in the next week, look for our contributors to highlight several draft and final guidance documents and to provide analysis and background on industry’s reactions to other guidances whose comment periods have recently closed.   The Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) released its fall/winter 2021 regulatory science news update today....

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued draft guidance to industry on how real-world data (RWD) could be used in clinical trials and how it could be incorporated into the design of non-interventional studies.   The draft guidance , released Thursday, outlines the applicability of FDA’s investigational new drug application (IND) regulations to clinical study designs that use RWD and clarifies the agency’s expectations on new drug applications (NDAs) or bio...

Two industry trade associations and a pharmaceutical company are asking for some adjustments and clarification on the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) draft guidance on safety reporting or investigational drugs and devices. The comment period on the guidance closed at the end of November.   FDA’s draft guidance includes details of how the agency believes investigators should report serious and non-serious adverse events in investigational new drug applicatio...

A global regulatory group is mapping out a strategy for regulatory alignment as countries around the world plan their responses in the face of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.   The International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA) met on the first two days of December to discuss a host of regulatory challenges. Thirteen World Health Organization (WHO) and EC officials joined representatives from ICMRA’s 24 health aut...

US medical device and in vitro diagnostic sponsors who are using the Food and Drug Administration’s de novo pathway will be able to use the eSTAR filing format at the beginning of 2022. A pilot program for the eSTAR template that kicked off in 2020 began with a template for 510(k) device submissions.   Nine companies participated in that pilot program that trialed the interactive, PDF-based filing format. Use of eSTAR was expanded in September 2020 to include all 5...

Welcome to Regulatory Reconnaissance, your daily regulatory news and intelligence briefing.   In Focus: US Biden says omicron variant is cause for concern but not panic ( NPR ) CDC Statement on B.1.1.529 (Omicron variant) ( CDC ) Pfizer boosts Paxlovid manufacturing capacity as Merck’s rival COVID pill hits surprise efficacy setback ( Fierce ) Opinion: Becerra needs to open up to the press ( AHCJ ) Opinion: Will Moderna Ever Learn to Share? ( MedPage Today ) Who ...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) slapped Smiths Medical in Minneapolis, MN with a warning letter for inadequate procedures for handling medical device reports (MDRs), faulty handling of complaints, inadequate validation processes, and lax corrective and preventative actions (CAPA) procedures. The company makes blood warmers and infusion pumps.   The warning letter was issued on 1 October and posted on 23 November. It follows a recent recall of the company’s ...

Welcome to our weekly digest of regulatory news from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), legislative updates, and other news updates we think you’ll find useful — and interesting. This week saw COVID-19 vaccine and therapy updates, the unveiling of Cures 2.0 , and lots of device updates. As usual, we welcome feedback at news@raps.org .    Friday morning, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced an expansion of the emergency use authorizations (EUA...

Medical device industry groups are urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) not to rush to create new regulatory requirements around the labeling of medical devices that incorporate artificial intelligence or machine learning (AI/ML), while clinician groups are seeking greater transparency about device algorithms and training data sets.     In total, 15 groups offered comments following a virtual public workshop held by FDA on the transparency of AI/ML-enable...