LONDON – As the May 2020 deadline for complying with the EU Medical Device Regulation (MDR) looms large, companies have been handed a further requirement they must meet if their products contain certain phthalate plasticizers. Phthalates are widely used to make polymers, in particular polyvinyl chloride (PVC), flexible. That allows it to be shaped into intubation tubes, catheters, blood bags, ventilator masks and other health care products. But the chemical bonds between phthalates and polymers are weak, and it is known they can leach into blood and other liquids, as well as be released into patients through mucous membranes.

PERTH, Australia – Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is taking regulatory action in relation to all un-implanted breast implants and tissue expanders sold in that country. Those actions include suspension and recall of products, removal from the market and additional requirements for supply of products.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has taken action to tamp down on False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuits. However, according to attorneys with the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, the courts have come to different conclusions as to whether federal attorneys have appropriately dismissed FCA cases, a development that opens a new area of concern for drug and device makers.

The U.S. FDA has posted its guidance agenda for this still-young fiscal year (FY), a list that covers topics such as Clinical Laboratory Improvements Amendments (CLIA) waivers. However, the agency appears to be concerned about a lack of compliance with Section 522 postmarket surveillance studies, as indicated by the inclusion of the related guidance in the high priority list for do-overs in fiscal 2020.

PERTH, Australia – Following stunning interim clinical results for its Celgro nerve regeneration treatment in quadriplegic patients, regenerative medicine company Orthocell Ltd. will focus all its efforts on gaining quick U.S. FDA approval based on the early results.

Think Surgical Inc., of Fremont, Calif., won good news from the U.S. FDA, which cleared the company's Tsolution One total knee application for use in total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The Tsolution One total knee application includes computed tomography-based 3D presurgical planning software, providing surgeons the ability to design and prepare the patient's knee joint replacement plan. During surgery, the physician puts the patient's pre-planned procedure using the robot into effect, with the goal of precisely placing the knee implants.

As the U.K. pursues its divorce from the EU, smaller U.S. drug and device companies could be caught disproportionately in the collateral damage. Many of them already struggle with the cost of duplicative regulatory requirements involved in marketing their products in the EU, but those costs could increase under Brexit, according to a report released last week by the U.S. International Trade Commission on trade-related barriers impacting U.S. small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that export to the U.K.

The U.S. FDA has given Pq Bypass Inc. the greenlight to conduct a pivotal trial aimed at assessing its Torus stent graft in the treatment of peripheral artery disease (PAD) in the superficial femoral artery. The TORUS-2 study is the Milpitas, Calif.-based startup's second IDE approval in less than two years and the first pivotal IDE for an SFA stent graft since W.L. Gore & Associates Inc.'s Viabahn device, which notched an initial PMA approval in 2005.

The U.S. FDA has posted a draft guidance that will overwrite a 2014 draft guidance dealing with MRI compatibility for medical devices, but at least one observer is concerned that the agency posted draft as standards-setting organizations are rewriting their own related device performance standards, a fact that could draw out the time to completion of the draft.