By Kurt R. Karst – A Draft Committee Report made available by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations that would, once finalized, accompany the Fiscal Year 2014 Agriculture/FDA Apprropriations bill (currently available as a Full Committee Draft), lays out a laundry list of …
By Jeffrey N. Gibbs, Jamie K. Wolszon & Jessica A. Ritsick – For many years, FDA has wrestled with how to regulate Laboratory-Developed Tests (“LDTs”). FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg is now renewing FDA’s call for more active FDA regulation of LDTs and touting the …
By Jeffrey K. Shapiro – The Medical Device Amendments of 1976 (“MDA”), Pub. L. No. 94-295, 90 Stat. 539 (1976), are commonly described as the beginning of the modern era of device regulation. In one sense, this description is absolutely correct. The MDA established for …
By Carmelina G. Allis – FDA has issued an “It Has Come to Our Attention Letter” to Biosense Technologies Private Limited for failure to have a 510(k) clearance for its mobile app, the uChek Urine Analyzer. The app can be downloaded for 99 cents through …
By Jeffrey K. Shapiro & Jennifer D. Newberger – As discussed in our prior posts (here, here, and here), the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (“CDRH”) has taken much needed steps to improve the most commonly used appeal process, request for supervisory review, available …
By Jennifer D. Newberger – In the Federal Register of May 8, 2013, FDA announced a public meeting titled “510(k) Device Modifications: Deciding When to Submit a 510(k) for a Change to an Existing Device.” The notice states that the focus of the meeting will be …
On May 4, 2013, Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, P.C. Director Jeffrey K. Shapiro presented a draft paper and slides on the 510(k) medical device substantial equivalence program during a conference on FDA in the 21st Century. The conference was held at the Harvard Law School’s …
By Carmelina G. Allis – As we previously reported, ReGen Biologics, Inc. ("ReGen"), which has been acquired by Ivy Sports Medicine, LLC ("Ivy"), filed suit in 2011 challenging FDA’s authority to rescind the 2008 510(k) substantial equivalence determination for the company’s “Menaflex” product, a collagen …
The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School is is holding its annual conference on Friday and Saturday, May 3-4, 2013, at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This year, the conference will focus on FDA and is titled …
By Jennifer D. Newberger – FDA is proposing to amend the medical device labeling requirements to allow for use of internationally recognized stand-alone symbols explained in an accompanying symbols glossary. The symbols glossary would include a list of each symbol used in the device labeling and …
By Jeffrey K. Shapiro & Jennifer D. Newberger – The medical device appeals process has long been in need of improvement. See our previous posts here and here. There are several ways an entity can appeal a decision of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health …
By Jeffrey K. Shapiro – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (appeal no. 11-1268) issued a decision last Friday backing up FDA’s denial of 510(k) clearance to two of Cytori’s products, the Celution 700 and the StemSource 900, which are intended to harvest …
By Carmelina G. Allis – With information technology taking on an increasingly important role in the healthcare system, software app developers are focusing their efforts on developing programs intended to facilitate health, wellness, and disease management. Some of these apps are developed for and implemented …
By Carmelina G. Allis – On February 28, 2013, FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (“CDRH”) issued what appears to be an unprecedented joint FDA/Federal Trade Commission “untitled letter” in the form of an email (an “untitled email”) to on-line distributors of decorative contact …
By Jeffrey K. Shapiro – FDA has just issued a draft guidance document titled “Distinguishing Medical Device Recalls from Product Enhancements and Associated Reporting Requirements” (Docket No. FDA-2013-D-0114) intended to clarify how to distinguish product “corrections” from product “enhancements.” Although the draft guidance would be applicable …
