A Medical Device Daily

The FDA has set its Nanotechnology Public Workshop for Oct. 10, at the Natcher Auditorium on the NIH Campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The meeting will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The gathering is being hosted by the agency's new task force on nanotechnology, charged with evaluating and making recommendations concerning regulatory approaches to emerging nanotechnology materials and products.

The FDA wants to learn about the kinds of new nanotech material products being developed in drugs, biologics, medical devices, foods (including dietary supplements), food and color additives, animal feeds and cosmetics. Officials want to be informed about any new or emerging scientific issues that should be brought to FDA's attention, and any other scientific issues about which the regulated industry, academia and interested public may wish to inform FDA about the use of nanotech materials in FDA-regulated products.

Due to the extremely high ratio of surface area to volume which characterize nanotech materials, they often have chemical or physical properties different from counterparts of ordinary size. Such differences include altered magnetic properties, altered electrical or optical activity, increased structural integrity, and increased chemical and biological activity.

Of particular interest to FDA, nanotech materials may enable new developments in implants and prosthetics, drug delivery, food processing, and may already be in use in some cosmetics and sunscreens. As part of its critical path initiative, FDA is interested in learning if there are opportunities for it to help overcome scientific hurdles that may be inhibiting the use of nanotech in medical product development and to determine what policies and regulations to develop in regulating them.

The Nanotechnology Task Force has been given the task to submit a report on its initial findings and recommendations to the FDA nine months after the Oct. 10 meeting.

The FDA meeting follows by just a few days the Materials, Medicine, and Nanotechnology Summit being hosted by the Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, Ohio) in partnership with ASM International (Materials Park, Ohio) and the Nano-Network (Cleveland), as part of Nano-Week 2006. The summit will be held Oct. 2-5 at the InterContinental Hotel and MBNA Conference Center in Cleveland.

MDD releases new report on orthopedics market

The publishers of Medical Device Daily have just released a new 200-page report focusing on the orthopedics sector, Orthopedics 2006 – Trends, Challenges and Opportunities.The report provides detailed insight into the trends impacting the orthopedics sector.

By focusing on emerging technologies and device developments in orthopedics, this new report divides the industry into its primary sub-sectors, and describes the key companies and device technologies being developed in each. “Aside from analysis we provide on the emerging sectors, we also delve into which areas are most vulnerable to current pricing pressures, such as the impact of hospital influence on the industry, along with recent FDA actions,” says Associate Managing Edi-tor Holland Johnson.

For information on purchasing this report, call our customer service department at 1-800-688-2421 or 1-404- 262-5476, or go to www.MedicalDeviceDaily.com.