The U.S. FDA has finalized a rewritten draft guidance for Section 522 postmarket surveillance studies, a policy that carries a new level of stringency regarding how these studies are conducted. The final guidance calls for all subjects in such a study to be enrolled within 24 months, a deadline some in industry argued might prove unduly burdensome in some instances.
As China seeks to be more independent in medical device development, authorities have released several guidelines to enhance the quality of its medical devices, as well as accelerate their registration.
The problem with notified body (NB) capacity in the European Union is well known, but a recent survey of NBs suggests that more than 17,000 certificates for medical devices and active implanted devices issued under the legacy regulation are set to expire by the end of 2024. More troubling might be the fact that the number of standing applications dwarfs the number of completed applications by a ratio of more than four to one, a gap that continues to grow as calendar year 2022 unwinds.
The U.S. FDA has given the green light to Aeye Health Inc. for its autonomous diagnostic screening system for diabetic retinopathy. The Aeye Diagnostic Screening (Aeye-DS) uses artificial intelligence (AI) to diagnose the eye condition from retinal images captured by a fundus, or retinal, camera.
After years of dialogue between the U.S. FDA and industry, the agency’s long-awaited draft guidance for computer software assurance (CSA) for manufacturing facilities signaled a new, less cumbersome approach to validating these systems. However, drug and device manufacturers registered concerns about a lack of clarity in the draft, including 23andMe Holding Co., which said the draft’s references to methods that merely “help to fulfill” validation requirements leave too much gray area to be helpful.
Acotec Scientific Holdings Ltd. obtained marketing approval from the U.S. FDA for its peripheral support catheter Vericor, designed to enhance access to peripheral vessels.
The government in France has just launched the Health Innovation Agency. This new government agency aims to improve identification of future health technology and better anticipate the impact of innovation in France.
Patients with ophthalmic disease use eyedrop containers and eyecups millions of times a year, but these two devices have been treated as one device type and informally regulated as class II devices up to now. A U.S. FDA advisory committee recommended a class I designation for these products, which will relieve some of the burden on manufacturers, but the panel also endorsed that these two types of products be split into two separate product codes, which would greatly facilitate adverse event reporting.
The U.S. FDA has wrapped up its guidance effort to deal with counterfeit devices, an effort that consumed roughly 11 months. That span of time had little discernible effect on the draft, however, as the final guidance seems to leave the draft’s explanation that future FDA guidances may refer to more than one section of the statute in references to the definition of a device.
The U.S. FDA recently convened an advisory committee to address accuracy issues with pulse oximetry devices, with a significant focus on skin pigmentation as a source of noise in the results generated by these class II devices. However, a number of other factors, including obesity and finger size/diameter, also cloud the values generated by pulse oximeters, all of which combine into a large set of variables that premarket studies may have to address before the FDA will issue new marketing authorizations.
