The negotiations for the next medical device user fee agreement are well underway, but the FDA is pressing the case for a substantial increase in device user fees. While the controversy over the cost of each addition to the FDA staff has not gone away, the agency continues to compare device user fees to drug user fees even though the drug industry is populated by much larger companies, thus nullifying any such comparisons in the view of device makers.
The Advanced Medical Technology Association’s (Advamed) new board chairman, Michael Minogue, president and CEO of Abiomed Inc., noted that the association’s agenda for 2021 includes considerations of several headwinds. However, Advamed President and CEO Scott Whitaker said the Medicare Coverage of Innovative Technologies (MCIT) program should commence March 15 as planned, despite the overhang of the Biden administration’s regulatory review of all orders posted in the last days of the Trump administration.
The latest global regulatory news, changes and updates affecting medical devices and technologies, including: White House names pick for CMS administrator’s post; FDA posts advisory for pulse oximetry; CDC: Telehealth visits dropped over last half of 2020; CRS says user fee shares of total review costs on the rise; Federal Circuit kicks case back to PTAB.
The latest global regulatory news, changes and updates affecting medical devices and technologies, including: BD offers little detail in reaction to advisory hearing; FDA invites stakeholders to user fee negotiations; MHRA wary of paclitaxel.
PERTH, Australia – Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration is proposing changes to its fees and charges and is asking stakeholders for feedback on three different proposed fee structures for the 2021-2022 financial year.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) had packaged a proposal to redefine the term “reasonable and necessary” along with the proposal to cover FDA-designated breakthrough devices, but ultimately punted on the definitional question until the end of this year. Mark Leahey, president and CEO of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA), told BioWorld that it may be just as well that the agency didn’t expeditiously push through the reasonable and necessary question because of the enormous complexity of the proposal.
The U.S. FDA’s device user fee schedule doubled for both the third and fourth user fee agreements over the prior iterations, but the pressure against another doubling for the fifth iteration of the user fee program is mounting. The Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA) said it sees a need to retain the user fee programs that are working and to jettison any underperforming programs, adding that user fees “should be stabilized around current funding levels.”
