The U.S. FDA has posted another draft version of the intended use rule, this time with a fix for the so-called knowledge problem. This latest draft would eliminate mere knowledge of off-label use as a trigger for amendments to the product label, a provision the agency said in a Sept. 22 statement will “provide greater certainty and predictability for regulated parties.”
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unveiled two interim final rules intended to deal with enforcement activities in connection with policies enunciated over the past four years, including the so-called Brand memo, which banned federal prosecutors from using federal agency guidance as leverage in prosecutions of private-sector entities.
Given the evolving COVID-19 situation, U.S. House committee chairs are asking the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to direct federal agencies to immediately extend all public comment periods by at least 45 days beyond the end of the declared national emergency, whenever that may be.
Medical devices are known to be iterative, but so are FDA guidances, and the 2018 draft guidance for third-party review of 510(k) applications was the second such document in two years. The 2020 final guidance made another adjustment or two based on feedback from industry, including a specific note that the intent of the guidance is to eliminate any need for routine FDA re-review of 510(k)s reviewed by third parties.
The FDA's revised draft guidance for clinical decision support (CDS) systems was intended to fix several glaring holes in the first draft, but multiple stakeholders argued that the second draft contradicts the related provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act when it comes to CDS systems that purport to drive or guide clinical decision making.
The U.S. FDA’s attempt to use objective performance criteria for class II devices offers several advantages for device makers. However, the Advanced Medical Technology Association (Advamed) said in comments to the docket for two such sub-guidances that the documents are too narrowly scoped to be of much use in many instances.
The U.S. FDA has posted a draft guidance that will overwrite a 2014 draft guidance dealing with MRI compatibility for medical devices, but at least one observer is concerned that the agency posted draft as standards-setting organizations are rewriting their own related device performance standards, a fact that could draw out the time to completion of the draft.
The U.S. FDA's emphasis on device safety is well known. Now, the agency has published a draft guidance that aims to provide expedited reviews for device and diagnostic applications that are "reasonably expected to significantly improve" safety, which, in conjunction with the breakthrough devices program, suggests that many other applications will be in the queue for increasingly longer periods of time.
Device makers have reporting responsibilities for devices used in combination products per an FDA final rule published in 2016, but the FDA said in the 2018 draft guidance that the applicant of a drug- or biologic-led combo product must evaluate whether a malfunction of the device component would suggest a hazard for similar combinations using that device. That provision appears in the final rule, and thus puts the onus on makers of drugs and biologics to do a job device makers say is theirs to handle.
