Medical Devices

“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 …

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, …

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 …

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 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 …

A recent draft guidance on predetermined change control plans (PCCP) for medical devices continues FDA’s effort to implement Section 515C of the Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act of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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

For several years, FDA has requested that sponsors of drug or biologic led combination products identify essential performance requirements (EPRs) related to the device constituent in their applications.  EPRs were usually requested in the context of design controls, although 21 C.F.R. § 820.30 does not …

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo has done away with Chevron deference to federal agencies’ interpretation of ambiguous statutes, including the FDA. The decision commands that federal judges must make their own decisions in suits against FDA, considering—but not deferring to—the …

FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) recently partnered with the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) to host a two-day workshop to help advance the use of patient-generated health data (PGHD) to support improved clinical trials, medical device development, and regulatory science.  The workshop included …