Unless there’s a last-minute meeting of the minds, it looks like any extension of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) five-year intellectual property waiver for COVID-19 vaccines will be shelved, at least for now.
When life-saving inhalers sell in Europe at 1.5% to about 8% of their list price in the U.S., they’re bound to attract scrutiny, especially in a time when inequities in prescription drug prices are fueling more and more legislation to reduce U.S. prices.
An FDA culture that discourages scientific disagreement with U.S. administration policies may be a perennial problem regardless of the party in power. That’s one of the between-the-lines takeaways from a Jan. 3 letter the Republican leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf – along with a stern warning that the agency had better respond in a timely manner.
Six months out from the World Health Organization ending the global health emergency brought on by the pandemic, there’s no need for the World Trade Organization to expand a five-year intellectual property (IP) waiver for vaccines to COVID-19-related drugs, devices and diagnostics.
Theken Companies LLC reported the acquisition of Visionair Solutions Inc. from the Cleveland Clinic, a deal that adds pulmonary therapy to its broad portfolio with Visionair’s 3D platform for the creation of silicon stents for central airway obstructions (CAOs). Terms of the transaction, which has officially closed, were not disclosed.
The European Commission has granted CE mark approval to Medtronic plc for its Inceptiv closed-loop rechargeable spinal cord stimulator (SCS). The device is the first Medtronic SCS to sense an individual’s biological cues and make adjustments in real time to control pain all day long. Dublin-based Medtronic plans to launch Inceptiv in Europe in the coming months.
Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has issued a regulatory proposal regarding the agency’s approach to audits for devices, a proposal that might reduce the number of these audits. TGA said it may limit audits to the highest-risk devices and may eliminate them for devices that have been granted market access in other regulatory jurisdictions.
Tissue regeneration company Osteopore Ltd. is on the cusp of dramatically changing the way orthopedic surgery is conducted globally, with Australia playing a crucial role. Osteopore was the first company to successfully develop and commercialize 3D-printed bioresorbable implants for surgical use, reducing post-surgery complications compared to permanent implants.
Device makers are often cited in U.S. FDA warning letters for making claims not seen in the approved labeling, but the authors of a recent review of artificial intelligence (AI) products cleared by the FDA suggest that FDA documents and marketing materials should disclose the presence of AI in these products. The authors of an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association said that only about 80.6% of the products were represented with accurate statements about the presence of AI, although FDA regulation does not require that marketing materials make such disclosures.
Sequana Medical NV has reported additional data on safety, survival and quality of life from its POSEIDON pivotal study in North America, evaluating its Alfapump device used in the treatment of patients with recurrent or refractory ascites caused by liver cirrhosis. The data were recently presented at the European Association for the Study of the Liver 2023 congress in Vienna.
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