The Vanishing PMA Device Advisory Panel Meeting

Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, FDA is authorized to hold advisory panel meetings for premarket approval applications (PMAs).  While FDA originally had to hold a panel meeting for all PMAs pursuant to the Medical Device Amendments of 1976, Congress liberalized the law in 1990 so that FDA panel meetings would only occur “on the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Service’s own initiative” or “upon the request of an applicant unless the Secretary finds that the information in the application . . . substantially duplicates information which has previously been reviewed by a panel.”

As we have noted previously, the number of PMA advisory panels has declined significantly in recent years (see also our prior post here).  Whereas in 2010 there were 9 panel meetings, in 2017 there were only 2.  In 2019, this downward trend hit bottom: there was not a single PMA advisory panel meeting.

To connoisseurs of the device approval process, this was a sad loss.  The PMA panel process provided otherwise inaccessible insights into FDA’s thinking, as well as the ability to analyze the impact of policy changes on substantive decisions (see PMA Advisory Panels: The Impact of FDA’s Change in Policy on Voting Pattern).  And, they sometimes offered traits rarely associated with the application process: drama, excitement, tension, and even humor.

For those who crave device panel meetings, it was not a total loss.  FDA did hold 9 other panel meetings in 2019, on topics ranging from ethylene oxide sterilization to reclassification of surgical stapler devices.  And, there was one advisory panel meeting for a de novo request (the NeuroAD Therapy System for treatment of Alzheimer’s dementia).  One could have gotten good odds on a bet that the number of de novo panel meetings in 2019 (1) would exceed the number of PMA advisory panel meetings (0).

Of course, other types of applications are also subject to panel meetings.  For example, FDA convenes panels to consider applications for new molecular entities.  Still, an article published in the January 9 issue of the Pink Sheet (US FDA’s Breakneck Approval Pace Clashes With Advisory Committee Mandate) reports that number of advisory panel meetings for drugs has dropped significantly in recent years.  If these trends continue, advisory committee meetings to review individual product applications may eventually become extinct.