The EU’s still-new regulations for medical devices and in vitro diagnostics are often seen as drivers of current or impending shortages of these products, but Oliver Eikenberg of regulatory consultancy Pure Global is unimpressed by such claims. Eikenberg said much of the drag on the EU system is engendered by device makers that are failing to get their regulatory affairs in order – a problem neither Brussels nor the notified bodies can fix.
The FDA announced a class I recall of Evair compressors by Chicago-based GE Healthcare due to elevated levels of formaldehyde when the devices are used with specific models of Carescape or Engstron ventilators.
Cell and gene therapy companies are the beneficiaries of positive changes along the regulatory path that the U.S. FDA is paving for them, according to a panel of executives who spoke at the BioFuture 2024 conference in New York. The agency is trying to set up cell and gene companies for success and that’s a very different agency than what it was years ago, said Paul Bresge, CEO of Ray Therapeutics Inc.
For the first time, Australians have access to CSL Inc.’s Vazkepa (icosapent ethyl/Vascepa) for managing cardiovascular disease more than a decade after the drug was first approved in the U.S.
Drug regulators around the world have a unique opportunity – and, in some cases, a legal mandate – to remove the taint of forced labor from the biopharma supply chain. But some of them, including the U.S. FDA and Japan’s PMDA, may be turning a blind eye to those responsibilities, according to a recent report from the nonprofit Centers for Advanced Defense Studies.
Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) set up its second overseas regulatory office in Washington, four months after the drug and med-tech regulator opened its first Asia base in Bangkok, Thailand, in July 2024.
Astrazeneca plc’s China president, Leon Wang, is under investigation in mainland China, the company said in an Oct. 30 statement. Although details are scant, Astrazeneca said Wang is “cooperating with an ongoing investigation by Chinese authorities,” and the company’s China operations will continue under the leadership of the current general manager of Astrazeneca China.
Qiagen NV added to its growing roster of panels cleared by the U.S. FDA in 2024 with the agency’s nod for its Qiastat-Dx Meningitis/Encephalitis assay. The clearance validates Qiagen’s strategy of developing rapid tests specifically for the U.S. market and builds on the respiratory, gastrointestinal and central nervous system tests already available.
Medicare coverage of digital mental health therapies has traditionally been lacking, but the final Medicare physician fee schedule for 2025 added three new codes to deal with the coverage gap.
While the inpatient and outpatient final rules for 2025 are baked into the U.S. Medicare payment system, there are indications that Congress will consider legislation that would flatten rates across sites of service.
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