Some PMA filings manage to scrape by at U.S. FDA advisory hearings, but the application for the Visability device by Refocus Group Inc. was not one of those. The panel voted 15-1 that the benefits of the device for presbyopia did not outweigh the risks, leaving the sponsor with a fundamental question about the viability of a technology that has been under development for more than 20 years.

Novocure Ltd. has scored another win, this time gaining the CE mark for the NovoTTF-100L system. As a result, Novocure plans to commercialize the device as a first-line treatment in combination with pemetrexed and platinum-based chemotherapy for unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic, malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM).

The U.S. FDA final guidance for microneedling devices is a product-specific guidance, but it raises questions about the agency’s perspective on how a manufacturer’s intended use is inferred. Despite concerns voiced by industry, the microneedling devices final guidance retains a feature of the draft that allows the agency to infer intended use from the manufacturer’s “expressions,” a provision that raises yet again the long-standing commercial speech problem.

TORONTO – Toronto-based Sqi Diagnostics Inc. has reported significant clinical progress developing three novel COVID-19 tests for submission for U.S. FDA emergency use authorization.

The U.S. FDA has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to Genscript USA Inc. for its Cpass SARS-CoV-2 Neutralization Antibody Detection Kit, the first commercially available test to detect neutralizing antibodies in individuals previously infected with the novel coronavirus. The serology test measures levels of neutralizing antibodies in samples from patients recovering from COVID-19 as well as people vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.