The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released new draft guidance documents to clarify its approach to regulating software as a medical device. The first draft guidance, Clinical and Patient Decision Support Software, addresses provision of the 21st Century Cures Act that exempts certain clinical decision support software from the definition of a medical device. The … Continue Reading
The Senate voted May 9, 2017 to approve the nomination of Scott Gottlieb, MD, to serve as Commissioner of Food and Drugs, by a vote of a 57-42. Dr. Gottlieb was sworn in on May 11.… Continue Reading
As a reminder, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is holding a two-day public meeting on November 9 and 10, 2016 regarding “Manufacturer Communications Regarding Unapproved Uses of Approved or Cleared Medical Products.” The meeting comes at a time where recent litigation has raised hot-button issues regarding the relationship between FDA, off-label use of drugs … Continue Reading
On November 9 and 10, 2016, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is hosting a public hearing on “Manufacturer Communications Regarding Unapproved Uses of Approved or Cleared Medical Products.” The hearing is intended to inform FDA’s “comprehensive review of its regulations and policies” pertaining to such communications. The FDA poses a number of specific questions … Continue Reading
The federal Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) recently published a draft guidance on labeling for biosimilar products that is intended to assist applicants in developing draft labeling for proposed biosimilar products. What is a biosimilar product? Biosimilar products are biological products that are highly similar to an FDA-approved biological product, known as a reference product. … Continue Reading
On January 22, 2016, the federal Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) issued a draft guidance outlining postmarket recommendations for medical device manufacturers to address cybersecurity risks. The draft guidance details the agency’s specific recommendations, which address monitoring, identifying and managing cybersecurity vulnerabilities in medical devices that are software, or contain software (including firmware) or programmable … Continue Reading
As discussed on our sister Life Sciences Legal Update blog, the FDA is holding a public two-day workshop entitled “Moving Forward: Collaborative Approaches to Medical Device Cybersecurity” on January 20-21, 2016. The FDA seeks to bring together diverse stakeholders to highlight past collaborative efforts, identify tools to aid stakeholders in implementing disclosure and vulnerability management, … Continue Reading
On April 28, 2015, the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finalized three guidances for industry on developing biosimilar drugs. The guidances, which follow the FDA’s first approval of a biosimilar drug in March, are intended to clarify both scientific and regulatory considerations for a broad range of stakeholders, including drug companies, in manufacturing biosimilars. … Continue Reading
As discussed on our Life Sciences Legal Update blog, the FDA has released draft guidance clarifying its acceptance of medical device clinical data from studies conducted outside of the United States. The draft guidance highlights special considerations that apply when using foreign clinical data, including applicability to populations within the US, and provides recommendations to … Continue Reading
CMS and FDA are establishing an interagency task force to reinforce their collaboration regarding the oversight of laboratory-developed tests (LDTs), which are tests intended for clinical use and designed, manufactured, and used within a single lab. According to an FDA blog post, the goals of the FDA/CMS task force include: (1) identifying areas of similarity between … Continue Reading
On April 1, 2015, the FDA is hosting a workshop entitled “Clinical Outcomes Assessment Development and Implementation: Opportunities and Challenges.” The workshop will update the public on ongoing efforts in the use of clinical outcome assessments (COAs), and plan for the future of COA development and utilization in drug development programs. The workshop will also … Continue Reading
This post was written by Kevin M. Madagan. Time to pop the bubbly a little early! FDA announced today that the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) deadline of January 1, 2015 for product tracing (i.e., the new federal pedigree standards) will not be enforced until May 1, 2015. This means manufacturers, wholesale distributors, and repackagers have … Continue Reading
On September 30, 2014, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the availability of two draft guidances intended to implement a new regulatory oversight framework for LDTs, which are defined by the FDA as “a type of in vitro diagnostic test that is designed, manufactured and used within a single laboratory” and which are intended … Continue Reading
The FDA’s new “Purple Book” lists biological products licensed by FDA under the Public Health Service Act (the PHS Act). The publication includes information on whether FDA evaluated the biological product for reference product exclusivity under section 351(k)(7) of the PHS Act, and whether the FDA has determined a biological product to be biosimilar to … Continue Reading
Yesterday the FDA issued final guidance entitled “Content of Premarket Submissions for Management of Cybersecurity in Medical Devices,” which includes recommendations for medical device manufacturers on cybersecurity management and information that should be included in a pre-market submission. The recommendations are intended to supplement previous FDA guidances, “Guidance for the Content of Premarket Submissions for Software … Continue Reading
Earlier this summer, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a draft 42-page “Informed Consent Information Sheet” that provides guidance for institutional review boards (IRBs), clinical investigators, and clinical trial sponsors on complying with the Agency’s informed consent regulations. Once finalized, the draft guidance will supersede FDA’s previous Information Sheet on this topic, “A Guide … Continue Reading
On September 5, 2014, the FDA is holding a public meeting at the Washington Plaza Hotel, in Washington DC, to discuss current scientific and regulatory approaches to biomarker development, acceptance, and utility in the development of therapeutic products (e.g., drugs and biologics). Specifically, FDA will focus on (1) identifying challenges for biomarker applications in early- … Continue Reading
In a new draft guidance document, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it does not intend to enforce compliance with general regulatory controls that apply to Medical Device Data Systems (MDDS), medical image storage devices and medical image communications devices. MDDS refers to hardware and software that transfers, stores, converts format and … Continue Reading
The FDA released two draft social media guidance documents last week, describing how manufacturers, packers and distributors of prescription drugs and medical devices may: (1) communicate both benefit and risk information on Internet/social media platforms with character space limitations, and (2) correct independent third-party misinformation about a firm’s products. For details, see Reed Smith’s Client … Continue Reading
This post was written by Jillian W. Riley. On June 6, 2014, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a draft guidance addressing the distribution of new risk information to health care providers (HCPs) and health care entities (HCEs). The draft guidance defines “new risk information” as “information that becomes available after a drug … Continue Reading
Yesterday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made available data on millions of reports of drug adverse events and medication errors made to FDA between 2004 and 2013. The release of the data is part of FDA’s new data sharing initiative, openFDA, which is designed to make it easier for developers, researchers and the … Continue Reading
A new guidance entitled “Expedited Programs for Serious Conditions – Drugs and Biologics” is now available from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The 40-page guidance is intended to serve as a single resource for information on FDA’s policies and procedures related to its four expedited drug development and review programs: (1) fast track designation, (2) … Continue Reading
According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), additive manufacturing, also known as 3-D printing, is entering mainstream use in medical devices, both as an alternative device production method for traditional components and as a method to create patient-matched devices. FDA has begun to receive submissions using additive manufacturing for medical devices, and the agency … Continue Reading
