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On May 10, 2022, FDA published draft guidance entitled, “Benefit-Risk Considerations for Product Quality Assessments”, which describes the benefit-risk principles applied by FDA when conducting product quality-related assessments of chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC) information submitted for FDA’s review as part of original new drug applications (NDAs), original biologics license applications (BLAs), or supplements to such applications.

In the draft guidance, FDA reiterates its risk-based regulatory approach and applies it in the product quality assessment context.  Specifically, the draft guidance states that FDA continues to identify potential risks to product quality associated with the formulation, manufacturing process, and packaging components when conducting a product quality assessment as well as the proposed control strategy for mitigating those risks.…

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A substantial shift for genetically engineered (“GE”) food regulation may be on the horizon thanks to a USDA proposed rule with a fast closing comment period, which ends on February 26, 2021. The proposed rule strips FDA’s jurisdiction over food-bearing GE livestock and places it within USDA’s purview, thereby granting USDA jurisdiction over pre-market review…

The Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) have been fighting fraudulent and deceptive advertising of health care devices, household cleaners, nutrition supplements, and other health care products promising to protect or mitigate the effects of the virus for pandemic-wary consumers since March 2020. Despite these efforts, false and misleading…

On October 28, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued an interim final rule with comment period (IFR) in an effort to ensure that participants in CMS programs have no-cost access to any forthcoming Food and Drug Administration (FDA or Agency) authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccine.

The IFR governs any vaccine that…

On August 31, 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued draft guidance regarding principles for selecting, developing, modifying, and adapting patient-reported outcome instruments for use in medical device evaluation.[1]  Patient-reported outcome (PRO) instruments facilitate the systematic collection of how patients feel and function during a clinical trial.  FDA recognizes this information as important…

On June 17, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continued its efforts to mitigate COVID-19’s disrupting impact on clinical trials by issuing guidance on statistical considerations for changes to trial conduct (FDA previously relaxed restrictions on protocol modifications). As expected, public health measures designed to control COVID-19’s rapid emergence as a global pandemic—social distancing, travel…

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. …

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…

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 to stakeholders, covering such topics as:…
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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. Notwithstanding minor differences in clinically inactive components, there can be no clinically meaningful differences between the biological product and the reference product in terms of the safety and efficacy.  In 2010, the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (“BPCIA”) was enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act in order to provide an abbreviated licensure pathway for a biosimilar that partly relies on the data originally submitted to the FDA by the reference product sponsor for approval.
Continue Reading FDA Issues Draft Guidance on Labeling For Biosimilar Products

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 logic once they have entered the market. The draft guidance represents a part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to ensure the safety and effectiveness of medical devices in the face of potential cyber threats at all stages in their lifecycles.  Specifically, the draft guidance follows multiple public workshops on the issue and previous FDA guidance titled “Content of Premarket Submissions for Management of Cybersecurity in Medical Devices,” which contains premarket recommendations for managing cybersecurity risks during the design stage of device development.  We previously blogged about this here. …
Continue Reading FDA Issues Postmarket Cybersecurity Recommendations for Medical Devices

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…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 for clinical use. Release of the documents follows on the heels of FDA’s notification to Congress in late July of its intent to issue draft guidance in this area. The first draft guidance, “Framework for Regulatory Oversight of Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs)” (Framework Guidance), describes a risk-based framework for addressing the regulatory oversight of LDTs. The Framework Guidance also describes FDA’s priorities for enforcing pre- and post-market requirements for LDTs, and the process by which FDA intends to phase in enforcement of FDA regulatory requirements for LDTs over time. The second draft guidance, “FDA Notification and Medical Device Reporting for Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs)” (Notification and Reporting Guidance), describes the process for clinical laboratories to notify FDA of the LDTs they manufacture as well as the Medical Device Reporting (MDR) requirements for clinical laboratories that manufacture LDTs. Both draft guidances reflect the FDA’s effort to take steps to encourage the advancement of personalized medicine by helping to ensure the reliability of certain diagnostic tests. The guidances are neither final nor in effect at this time. 

The following is an overview of the specific issues addressed in the draft guidances:…

Continue Reading FDA Releases Two Draft Guidance Documents on Proposed Laboratory Developed Test (LDT) Regulatory Oversight