India’s regulators have made more moves in recent times as part of its larger and ongoing movement to regulate medical devices in its country. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has just finalized its regulations over the licenses of medical device manufacturers and suppliers.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted June 8 to pass the legislation reauthorizing a number of user fee programs at the FDA, a welcome bit of good news for FDA-regulated industries. Nonetheless, there are several substantive differences between H.R. 7667 and the parallel Senate bill, differences that may take some doing to overcome before a final bill can be forwarded to the Oval Office.
Stratipath AB gained CE-IVD mark for its artificial intelligence (AI)-based software for prognostic risk stratification of breast cancers, clearing the path for introduction of the solution in the EU. Stratipath Breast analyzes digital histopathology whole slide images generated from surgically resected breast cancer tissue to identify patients with increased risk of disease progression. The system provides clearer guidance on the best treatment path for the 50% of women whose breast cancer is categorized as intermediate risk.
The U.S. FDA has posted notice of an advisory issued by Dublin-based Medtronic plc, regarding the Heartware ventricular assist device due to a pump weld defect, which the agency has identified as a class I recall. The recall affects devices that have been in use since 2006 and is associated with the entry of moisture into the pump center post, which can de-magnetize the magnets and thus trigger malrotation and consequently damage to the welds.
Regenerative medicine company Orthocell Ltd. reported final data from its nerve reconstruction study that showed patients continued to improve between 12- and 24-months post-treatment with regenerative nerve repair device Remplir.
The U.S. FDA’s guidance for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) in medical devices has several moving parts, a consequence of the fact that the scope included cardiac electrophysiology devices and non-implantable medical devices. For the most part, the terms of the guidance will go into force within 60 days, but the compliance deadline for in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) doesn’t go into force until June 6, 2023, giving these manufacturers much more breathing room than their non-IVD counterparts.
The U.S. FDA determined that the pandemic required an adjustment to applicant turn-around times for the agency’s responses to regulatory filings, an allowance that was unavoidable given the impact of the pandemic on applicants’ ability to respond. That policy has now been reversed, the agency said, which means that a failure to respond to queries about 510(k) filings within 180 days will lead to an assumption on the agency’s part that the applicant has withdrawn the submission.
China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) released a new draft amendment to its Drug Administration Law (DAL) that introduces some important changes to the regulatory framework and is aimed at codifying initiatives implemented in the current DAL, such as patent linkage and regulatory data protection.
The U.S. FDA has received a citizen’s petition regarding the use of neuropsychological testing prior to placement of a deep brain stimulation (DBS) device for treatment of Parkinson’s disease. The petitioners, most of whose names were redacted, said that there is no standardized test for this purpose, and thus the patient should have sole discretion of evaluating the meaning of their own tests or the use of these tests should not be seen dispositive of the question of whether to go ahead with placement of a DBS device for Parkinson’s.
U.K.’s Angle plc has become the first company to receive a U.S. FDA product clearance for harvesting intact cancer cells for analysis. Angle reported it scored FDA clearance for its Parsortix system for the capture and harvest of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from metastatic breast cancer patient blood. Shares in the AIM-listed company soared by more than 50% following the news.
