Welcome to the latest edition of HPM’s monthly wrap up of food, beverage and supplement news, including regulations, guidances, events, and whatever else is catching our eye. It’s been quite a January, hasn’t it? Food & Beverage Transition: As of this writing, Janet Woodcock is Acting …
The American Conference Institute (“ACI”) is sponsoring its Advanced Legal, Regulatory, and Compliance Forum on OTC Drugs Conference on February 26, 2021 (Eastern Time). Like a lot of conferences over the past year, the ACI conference format has changed from a live, in-person event to …
In late November, the OIG published a final rule that excludes from the Federal healthcare program safe harbor for discounts rebates paid to Medicare Part D plans, or their PBMs (see our post here). The rule also establishes two new safe harbors: one for rebates …
At a conference sponsored by the Parenteral Drug Association on January 27, speakers demonstrated that: Industry has developed best practices for auditors or regulatory inspectors to conduct virtual inspections of drug-manufacturing facilities (virtual inspections are those in which the auditor or inspector is not physically on-site, …
While receiving less public attention than some other types of health care products, in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) have for years been playing an increasingly important role in health care. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted what has long been the case: IVDs are indispensable to public …
In the waning days of the Trump administration, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a fairly significant change in addiction medicine policy. The new policy permits physicians (and only physicians) more flexibility to prescribe buprenorphine – a much used and effective drug that …
2020 was unprecedented and tumultuous due to simultaneous challenges of a once-in-a-century global pandemic, the resulting socio-economic fallout, and political polarization regarding policy responses to the pandemic, civil rights protests and presidential elections. The FDA has been pressured and challenged and responded with varying degrees of …
As we previously reported (see here and here), in three separate cases, federal courts blocked the implementation of the Most Favored Nation (MFN) rule for Medicare Part B drug payment. (Our summary of the MFN rule is available here.) In December 2020, the District Court …
On January 12, 2021, FDA issued an Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML)-Based Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) Action Plan (“AI/ML Action Plan”) and a discussion paper on their Proposed Regulatory Framework for Modification to Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) – Based Software as a Medical Device …
On January 8, 2021, California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) announced proposed amendments to Proposition 65 warning regulations that would limit use of the short-form version of the safe harbor warning. Proposition 65, California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, mandates …
With a legal question that led to a classic oral argument where all nine Justices refused to tip their hands on how the case will turn out, the U.S. Supreme Court this week heard oral arguments in AMG Capital Management v. Federal Trade Commission. The …
Those of you keeping up with the Orange Book know that FDA has been considering changes to patent listing requirements, many of which industry has been requesting for decades. Now, Congress is trying to facilitate effective administration of the Orange Book. On January 5, 2021, …
That did not take long. As we reported at the end of 2020, FDA announced in a notice the User Fees for OTC Monograph Drug Manufacturers and other fees. Then on Jan. 6, 2021, HHS announced that the fees are off the table. What happened? Well, …
It’s a burning question: when will we return to normal? And although the answer is hugely subjective, this post focuses on the date the official emergency declaration for COVID-19 will terminate. Despite the general sentiment that we want to be back to normal sooner rather …
More than four years ago the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) started down a path by issuing a policy statement asserting that the agency “fully supports expanding research into the potential medical utility of marijuana and its chemical constituents.” Applications to Become Registered Under the Controlled …
