The need for self-administered surveillance testing finally has a few candidates, thanks to labs and test developers across the globe, and the U.S. FDA is keen on exploiting the opening. Tim Stenzel, director of the FDA’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health, said on the agency’s Sept. 2 testing town hall that the agency is interested in a test intended to be self-administered multiple times compared to a test validated under a single test approach, a flexibility that may prove critical in advancing the U.S. approach to testing for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Developers of tests for the SARS-CoV-2 virus have gained a tremendous amount of experience in a very small amount of time, and of all the media for sampling, saliva offers the easiest route for test administration. The U.S. FDA’s Tim Stenzel said on the Aug. 5 testing town hall, however, that the FDA and developers have discovered that this is an extremely difficult medium to work with.
The next phase of testing for the COVID-19 pandemic will hopefully include the roll-out of tests for neutralizing antibodies for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but there are some roadblocks. The FDA’s Tim Stenzel said the agency has a limited amount of information to offer regarding emergency use authorizations for these tests, a predicament that might not resolve until several applicants are in and the agency can see some information that will aid in development of performance and validation standards.
The U.S. FDA’s priorities for testing for the SARS-CoV-2 virus have shifted as circumstances have changed, and the agency is putting more emphasis into testing of pooled samples. Toby Lowe, the associate director of the Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health (OIR), said on the July 8 diagnostic town hall that the agency wants to encourage test developers to work on their existing EUAs for pooled sampling.
The U.S. FDA’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic may have got off to a rocky start, but the agency’s device center has changed course rather quickly several times in recent months. Tim Stenzel, director of the FDA’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health, said on the latest COVID-19 town hall that the push is now on several relatively novel points of emphasis, including high-throughput testing, a technology that may prove critical to corralling the SARS-CoV-2 virus when flu season arrives later this year.
The U.S. FDA detailed which kinds of SARS-CoV-2 tests are getting top priority, with access to rolling, rapid reviews for emergency use authorization (EUA) during the unfolding pandemic. The agency is aiming to authorize point-of-care and at-home tests to better distribute the use of testing in various locations. It also is looking at automated and high-throughput tests that can offer analysis of larger batches of tests at one time.
BOSTON – The 2019 Medtech Conference included the annual FDA town hall session, and Jeff Shuren, director of the agency's device center, said the pace of scientific change is outstripping the agency's ability to keep up. Shuren said the solution might be "regulatory Legos," an approach that might eliminate the need to go to Congress for new statutory authorities every time device makers carve open a new technological frontier.
