The end of the year will be the end of an era at the FDA, as Bob Temple shuts his door at CDER for the last time Dec. 31. After more than half a century at the FDA’s drug center, Temple has become the backbone of CDER’s new drug program, providing expertise and stability as other personnel have come and gone.

With no time to spare, the U.S. Congress is coming together on a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the federal government running beyond Dec. 20. Intended to fund the government at current levels through March 14, the CR itself is temporary. But of the 1,500-plus pages in the package House leadership released late Dec. 17, only about 100 pages pertain to the actual CR. More than a third of the package is devoted to the health-care sector.

Smith & Nephew plc received U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance for Aetos Stemless, its stemless anatomic total shoulder implant. The greenlight for the device is a boon for the company’s orthopedics portfolio, which faces increasing pressure from U.S. competitors.

Becton, Dickinson and Co. reached an agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to resolve an investigation related to allegations that the company misled investors regarding the Alaris infusion system, which BD added to its portfolio with the $12.2 billion acquisition of Carefusion in 2015. BD will pay a $175 million civil penalty and agreed to a cease and desist order for the device.

Heartbeam Inc. received U.S. FDA 510(K) clearance for its portable, non-invasive electrocardiogram system that enables on-the-go recording of heart signals. The cable-free, credit card-sized device uses five electrodes to capture signals from three directions and can be used whenever a patient feels symptoms, overcoming the challenge of identifying intermittent arrhythmias, which are often not experienced during scheduled appointments, without requiring patients to wear a device continuously.

The U.S. FDA’s emphasis on alternatives to ethylene oxide is gaining momentum with the help of internationally recognized standards — such as ISO 11737 — in a move that will enable a less cumbersome approach to non-EtO device sterilization.

The fact that both the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice have oversight of mergers and acquisitions is something of a regulatory oddity. But David Balto, an attorney specializing on antitrust matters, told BioWorld that this may change in 2025 thanks to support for such a move from both Congress and the White House.

Stereotaxis Inc. and Chinese partner Shanghai Microport EP Medtech Co. Ltd. gained the National Medical Products Administration’s approval of its Magbot magnetic navigation ablation catheter Dec. 9 for use with Stereotaxis’ robotic ablation system to treat drug-resistant cardiac arrhythmias in China.

Administrators at the U.S. Medicare program have proposed to cover the Cardiomems remote monitoring device for heart failure, but cardiologists are averse to several of the conditions spelled out in the draft coverage memo, including what they see as a somewhat futile demand for a comparator arm in the proposed coverage study.

The FDA’s new program for communicating the hazards of devices is in play and resulted in the posting of a notice of a problem seen with the Ivenix line of large volume infusion pumps by Fresenius Kabi USA, which will require some repair work by the manufacturer.