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  • Medical Devices

    • How Many Hours are Really in a Day?December 3rd, 2024

      We recently blogged on FDA’s draft guidance, Chemical Analysis for Biocompatibility Assessment of Medical Devices, which describes chemical characterization methods that may be used to demonstrate biocompatibility of a medical device as an alternative to conducting certain biological testing.  We noted that the draft guidance’s …

    • Evidence v. Belief: What a Kennedy Appointment Could Mean to FDA and Public HealthNovember 19th, 2024

      On Thursday, November 14, President-Elect Trump announced his pick of Robert Kennedy, Jr., for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Although not altogether surprising, the formality of an official announcement still came as a shock to many of us who work in areas regulated …

    • Even in “Unprecedented” Times, There is PrecedentNovember 18th, 2024

      The word unprecedented has been used a lot in the past two weeks.  Perhaps appropriately.  Below is some  precedent that’s been on this blogger’s mind recently and that may be relevant in the coming days, weeks, and months: Tummino v. Hamburg. Why? The HHS Secretary …

    • FDA and the Device Industry: Friends or Foes?November 15th, 2024

      “An open foe may prove a curse, but a pretended friend is worse.” When the poet John Gay wrote these words in 1727, the idea of an administrative agency like the FDA was likely the furthest thing from his mind. That he is now being …

    • To 513(g) or not to 513(g)? That is the questionNovember 8th, 2024

      In most instances, it is clear if a product will be considered a “device” under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act).  Sometimes, though, the question of classification defies an easy answer.  When a company is unsure if its product is a device, …

    • Who You Gonna Email? Digital Health Question Busters!November 6th, 2024

      Though digital health is not new, it can still often be difficult to determine with precision the regulatory requirements applicable to a particular software product. Sometimes this is because FDA has not opined on a specific set of facts, but more often it is because …

    • As Jurisprudence Under Loper Bright Develops, Early Scorecard is MixedNovember 4th, 2024

      Back in July, the United States Supreme Court turned the world of administrative law on its head, adding new layers of judicial oversight to what might have previously been thought of as fairly non-descript Federal agency functions. One of those cases was Loper Bright v. …

    • A Reversal on Sequencing? Proposed Legislation Would Allow Patenting of Naturally Occurring GenesOctober 25th, 2024

      A recent blog post focused on the potentially negative implications of the proposed Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA) for manufacturers of generic drugs and biosimilar products.   The concerns raised by PERA are not limited to these industries, however.  Rather, developers of diagnostic tests      and, indeed …

    • Indeterminate Change: FDA Releases Draft Guidance on Predetermined Change Control Plans for Medical DevicesOctober 3rd, 2024

      A recent draft guidance on predetermined change control plans (PCCP) for medical devices continues FDA’s effort to implement Section 515C of the Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act of 2022 (FDORA),   which Congress enacted to make it easier for manufacturers to make post-market device changes …

    • Knock, Knock. Who’s There? Breakthrough Device. Breakthrough Device Who? Breakthrough Device That Can’t Get to MarketSeptember 27th, 2024

      We can all acknowledge that the title of this post is not that funny-at least, not to anyone other than medical device regulatory nerds, such as the author of this post. What no one should find funny is how CDRH seems to be approaching Breakthrough …

    • FDA Hosts Webinar for Stage 1 Requirements under LDT Final RuleSeptember 23rd, 2024

      On August 22, 2024, FDA hosted a webinar to provide further guidance on the regulatory requirements it intends to apply to Laboratory Developed Test (LDT) developers in Stage 1 of the phaseout policy of the LDT Final Rule – during which FDA has said laboratories …

    • Days Go By* – Particularly When Responding to an FDA InspectionSeptember 13th, 2024

      While we hope readers of the Blog, as our clients and friends, come out of any FDA inspection with a clean bill of health, we know that based on FDA FY2024 data to date, approximately 40% of inspections of medical device companies end up classified …

    • Where Have All the De Novo Summaries Gone: An UpdateSeptember 4th, 2024

      Thank you to readers of this blog. We received incredible feedback on our August 19 post analyzing the number of decision summaries that have been posted for De Novos. We are happy to report that fifteen new decision summaries have been posted as of August 28. …

    • Long Time Passing: Where Have All the De Novo Decision Summaries Gone?August 19th, 2024

      In 1997, Congress wisely amended the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) by adding Section 513(f)(2) to establish the De Novo process.  The De Novo process provides a regulatory pathway to classify novel devices for which general controls alone or general and special controls …

    • Wound Products, Antimicrobial Resistance, and Commercial Speech: FDA’s Solution in Search of a ProblemJuly 29th, 2024

      In November 2023, FDA published a proposed rule regarding wound products containing antimicrobials. From a legal perspective, the reason for the proposed rule is that these wound products are some of the few remaining medical devices that have not yet been classified by FDA. As …