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 FDA continues to break records in approving generics to ramp up competition in the U.S. drug market. In fiscal 2019, the agency approved 1,171 generic drug approvals – 935 full approvals and 236 tentative approvals. That breaks fiscal 2018's record of 971 approvals, Acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless said. The 2019 approvals included 125 applications for first generics of drugs that had no generic competition.

The FDA's Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee backed by a large margin cefiderocol for treatment of complicated urinary tract infections (cUTIs), despite the mortality disparity found by Shionogi & Co. Ltd. among critically ill drug-treated patients in the descriptive phase III trial in severe infections called Credible-CR.

While other industries have completely modernized the way they manufacture their products, the biopharma industry, in large part, is stuck in the "this is how we've always done it" mode.

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.

Briefing documents released ahead of Wednesday’s meeting of the FDA’s Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee, slated to review Shionogi & Co. Ltd.’s cefiderocol for treatment of complicated urinary tract infections (cUTIs), spotlighted a finding of increased mortality among critically ill cefiderocol-treated patients in the company’s Credible-CR study.

Even as the U.S. House of Representatives fast tracks H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act, as its solution to making prescription drugs more affordable, other bills aimed at drug pricing continue to roll in. 

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.