The demise of the Medicare Coverage of Innovative Technologies (MCIT) rule may not be the end of the breakthrough devices coverage story, but Lee Fleisher of the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said the MCIT rule was riddled with deficiencies. Fleisher said CMS is of the view that expedited coverage of breakthrough medical devices would be better handled under existing statutory authorities, suggesting the agency sees no need for the MCIT-driven provisions of the Cures 2.0 legislation.

The issue of FDA regulation of lab-developed tests (LDTs) has been percolating for a number of years, but the Verifying Leading-edge IVCT development (VALID) Act of 2021 appears to offer the solution. Several stakeholders, including Jeff Allen, president and CEO of Friends of Cancer Research, are eager to see the reforms come through quickly, given the increasingly vital role that tests such as companion diagnostics play in the care of patients facing potentially deadly diseases.

Biopharma companies that have agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Justice millions of dollars to resolve allegations that they illegally used charities to cover patients’ Medicare copays for brand drugs are finding those settlements may be just the beginning of their legal woes, even when the companies admit no liability in the settlement.

Patent subject matter eligibility often seems to overshadow the America Invents Act of 2011 of late despite the controversies over inter partes reviews, but patent attorney Robb Roby told BioWorld that the most important provision of the landmark patent reform legislation may be the provision for prioritized examination. In some instances, this fast-track program has led to a grant of patent in substantially less than a year, a feature Roby said provides a critical turn-around for small companies trying to sustain their appeal to venture capitalists.

Boston Scientific Corp. has said pressure from the Delta variant in the U.S. means it is unlikely to hit the lower end of its current third-quarter sales guidance, which calls for 12% to14% organic growth vs. Q320 and 5% to 7% organic growth vs. Q319. Boston Scientific said it expected to still hit the full year sales guidance of 6% to 7% organic vs. 2019 that it issued on July 27 but would continue to monitor the economic and financial impacts of COVID-19. The company noted that the impact of Delta had been mostly in the NW and SE parts of the U.S. while the impact in EU/APAC region had been more modest.

CDC director Rochelle Walensky’s early morning announcement on Sept. 24 recommending boosters for certain frontline workers was considered wise by some but as undermining her advisers and the process by others. She endorsed the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ recommendation for booster doses of the Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE COVID-19 vaccine but overruled one of the panel’s Sept. 23 decisions by adding boosters for people ages 18 to 64 who are at increased risk of COVID-19 exposure and transmission due to occupational or institutional setting, based on their individual benefits and risks.

While the FDA has not provided transcriptions for device user fee meetings in roughly five months, the agency is still demonstrably determined to increase the volume of user fees. A source close to the negotiations told BioWorld that the latest proposal from the agency, dated Sept. 22, would require that industry come up with roughly $2.5 billion over the next five fiscal years, more than double the amount under MDUFA IV.