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  • Medical Devices

    • Decades of LDT Tension Leads to an Epic Three-Hour Oral ArgumentFebruary 20th, 2025

      The multi-decade battle over FDA’s power to regulate Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs) had its day in court earlier this week.  On February 19, 2025, Judge Sean Jordan in the Eastern District of Texas heard oral arguments in American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA) and the Association …

    • What to Expect When you are Expecting…a Government ShutdownFebruary 18th, 2025

      The government is currently funded through March 14th, 2025. Come Monday March 17th, if Congress does not pass a budget or continuing resolution, the FDA will enter a shutdown and shutter many offices and programs while Congress works out their inter-party squabbles on national priorities. …

    • Small Change: FDA’s Final Predetermined Change Control Plan (PCCP) Guidance Ditches ML and Adds Some Details, But Otherwise Sticks Closely to the DraftFebruary 14th, 2025

      FDA recently released its final guidance for Predetermined Change Control Plans (PCCPs) for Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Device Software Functions (AI-DSF). The final guidance hasn’t changed much from the draft guidance with respect to the type of modifications FDA considers applicable for a PCCP and the required …

    • AI May Make Your Device More Efficient, but Be Prepared to Spend More Time on Design DocumentationFebruary 5th, 2025

      In early January, FDA released a draft guidance document titled Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Device Software Functions: Lifecycle Management and Marketing Submission Recommendations (Draft AI Guidance).  FDA has issued discussion papers (see our posts here and here ) and guidance on use of Pre-determined Change Control Plans …

    • FDA Inspections: Lesson 1 – Interviewing EmployeesJanuary 10th, 2025

      This is the first in a series of blog posts on tips for successfully handling an FDA inspection.  Using publicly available examples, these “lessons” will illustrate potential pitfalls and strategies for interacting with FDA during and after an inspection.   Although FDA has long taken the …

    • FDA’s Third Party Review Program is Ready for the Next Pandemic, not the LDT Final RuleDecember 17th, 2024

      FDA recently released 510(k) Third Party Review Program and Third Party Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) Review which finalizes the draft guidance of the same title issued in December 2023.  We previously discussed the Third Party Review Program in a blog post last year when FDA …

    • How Many Hours are Really in a Day?December 3rd, 2024

      We recently blogged on FDA’s draft guidance, Chemical Analysis for Biocompatibility Assessment of Medical Devices, which describes chemical characterization methods that may be used to demonstrate biocompatibility of a medical device as an alternative to conducting certain biological testing.  We noted that the draft guidance’s …

    • Evidence v. Belief: What a Kennedy Appointment Could Mean to FDA and Public HealthNovember 19th, 2024

      On Thursday, November 14, President-Elect Trump announced his pick of Robert Kennedy, Jr., for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Although not altogether surprising, the formality of an official announcement still came as a shock to many of us who work in areas regulated …

    • Even in “Unprecedented” Times, There is PrecedentNovember 18th, 2024

      The word unprecedented has been used a lot in the past two weeks.  Perhaps appropriately.  Below is some  precedent that’s been on this blogger’s mind recently and that may be relevant in the coming days, weeks, and months: Tummino v. Hamburg. Why? The HHS Secretary …

    • FDA and the Device Industry: Friends or Foes?November 15th, 2024

      “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 …

    • To 513(g) or not to 513(g)? That is the questionNovember 8th, 2024

      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, …

    • Who You Gonna Email? Digital Health Question Busters!November 6th, 2024

      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 …

    • As Jurisprudence Under Loper Bright Develops, Early Scorecard is MixedNovember 4th, 2024

      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 Reversal on Sequencing? Proposed Legislation Would Allow Patenting of Naturally Occurring GenesOctober 25th, 2024

      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 …

    • Indeterminate Change: FDA Releases Draft Guidance on Predetermined Change Control Plans for Medical DevicesOctober 3rd, 2024

      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 …