• where experts go to learn about FDA
  • Allyson B. Mullen

    • CDRH Issues Revised Replacement Reagent PolicyJanuary 25th, 2018

      A week before Christmas, CDRH issued a revised draft of the Replacement Reagent policy. When finalized, the revised draft guidance will replace the 2003 final guidance. According to FDA, the revised guidance “is intended to update and provide clarity on” the existing policy. FDA has …

    • CDRH Issues Revised Draft Accessory GuidanceJanuary 16th, 2018

      On December 20, FDA issued a new, draft guidance, “Medical Device Accessories – Describing Accessories and Classification Pathways.”  This guidance is the latest chapter in the years-long, and still on-going, story of accessory classification. As you may recall, Congress and FDA have both been working …

    • While You Were Away: CDRH Announces Pilot Voluntary Quality Compliance ProgramJanuary 11th, 2018

      While many were on vacation and preparing to celebrate the New Year, CDRH was announcing yet another pilot program. You may recall FDA recently announced its Digital Health Software Pre-Cert Pilot Program and its Premarket Approval Application Critical to Quality Pilot Program.  The latest pilot …

    • CDRH Issues New Draft Least Burdensome GuidanceJanuary 10th, 2018

      Section 513 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act requires FDA to consider the least burdensome means of evaluating device safety and effectiveness for Class III devices and substantial equivalence for devices requiring 510(k) clearance. Despite this legal requirement, the device industry’s position has …

    • FDA Issues Final Guidance on Additive Manufactured (“3D-Printed”) DevicesJanuary 3rd, 2018

      On December 5, 2017, FDA issued a final guidance: Technical Considerations for Additive Manufactured Medical Devices, Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff. Additive Manufacturing (AM) is “a process that builds an object by iteratively building 2-dimensional (2D) layers and joining each to …

    • Are There Only Two Types of Tests in Clinical Studies – Legally Marketed or Investigational? Maybe, according to FDA’s Draft Guidance for Investigational IVDsDecember 26th, 2017

      On December 18, FDA released its draft guidance, “Investigational IVDs Used in Clinical Investigations of Therapeutic Products.” This is the latest guidance from the Agency on the relationship between in vitro diagnostic (IVD) products and therapeutic products. You will recall that the Centers jointly issued the …

    • CDRH Issues Draft CLIA Waiver GuidancesDecember 15th, 2017

      On November 29, 2017, CDRH issued two draft guidances regarding CLIA Waiver requests: “Select Updates for Recommendations for Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1998 (CLIA) Waiver Applications for Manufacturers of In Vitro Diagnostic Devices” (CLIA Waiver Guidance) and “Recommendations for Dual 510(k) and CLIA Waiver …

    • CDRH Issues Final Guidance on De Novo Classification Process and Draft Guidance Regarding De Novo Submission Acceptance ReviewDecember 1st, 2017

      On October 30, CDRH issued the Final Guidance “De Novo Classification Process (Evaluation of Automatic Class III Designation)” (the “De Novo Guidance”). This is a final version of the 2014 draft by the same name (see our earlier blog post here). On the same day, …

    • CDRH Finalizes Guidance Regarding Sharing of Patient-Specific Information from Medical DevicesNovember 27th, 2017

      On October 30, CDRH finalized the guidance entitled, “Manufacturers Sharing Patient-Specific Information From Medical Devices With Patients Upon Request”.  This is the final version of the guidance, “Dissemination of Patient-Specific Information from Devices by Device Manufacturers” issued in June 2016 (see our blog post on …

    • FDA Finalizes Guidance on When to Submit a 510(k) for a Change to an Existing DeviceNovember 14th, 2017

      On October 25, 2017, FDA issued a final guidance: Deciding When to Submit a 510(k) for a Change to an Existing Device. This guidance is a final version of the draft issued in 2016 (see our post on the 2016 draft here). Despite receiving a …

    • CDRH Issues Draft Guidance Regarding Breakthrough DevicesOctober 31st, 2017

      The 21st Century Cures Act (Cures), signed into law in December 2016, established a program to provide priority review and management attention for breakthrough devices. We discussed the new section of the law in our earlier post on Cures (here). The law required FDA to …

    • 510(k) Exemption – What’s Actually Exempt Part IIOctober 24th, 2017

      Our April 16th blog post regarding 510(k) exemptions (here) garnered a lot of comments from our readers. So we thought it was worth a second post. As you will recall, the .9 limitation says that a device of the generic type in a 510(k)‑exempt classification regulation …

    • Flurry of New Guidances from CDRH and Notable Changes to the Pre-Submission ProcessOctober 16th, 2017

      Getting an early jump on winter, between September 29 and October 2, CDRH issued a blizzard of new guidance documents. All eleven of these guidances were issued based on commitments from MDUFA IV.  These guidances consist of: four guidances regarding user fees for each type of …

    • FDA Finalizes Guidance on Evaluation and Reporting of Age-, Race-, and Ethnicity-Specific Data in Medical Device Clinical StudiesOctober 8th, 2017

      In July of last year, FDA released a draft guidance on evaluation and reporting of age-, race-, and ethnicity-specific data in medical device clinical studies (see our post on the draft guidance here). On September 12, 2017, FDA released the final version of this guidance. The …

    • CDRH Issues Final Guidance Regarding Interoperable Medical DevicesSeptember 24th, 2017

      On September 6, 2017, FDA issued the final guidance “Design Considerations and Pre-market Submission Recommendations for Interoperable Medical Devices.” The final guidance can be found here. The document provides guidance regarding interoperable devices, which it defines as devices “that have the ability to exchange and …