As country after country downshifts out of pandemic mode, the need for affordable COVID-19 therapies continues, especially in middle-income countries that are not included in current voluntary licensing arrangements. To meet that need, the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling on manufacturers of those drugs to extend the geographic scope of their licensing agreements to allow competition and price reductions so the treatments can be used where they’re needed most.
The possibilities of cures for cancer and other tough-to-treat diseases and the ability to further personalize medicine are creating a lot of excitement about the future of radiopharmaceuticals as both therapy and diagnostics. To reach that future, industry and researchers will have to overcome a lot of challenges, not the least of which stem from the multiple government agencies involved in regulating the source material, development, distribution and use of radioactive drugs and devices.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Can-Fite, JW, Merck, Moderna, Promis, Sumitomo.
In December 2013, the U.S. FDA held an advisory hearing on spinal spheres used in intervertebral fusion procedures, a hearing that generated a recommendation that the agency classify these devices as class III devices. The agency finally followed through on that recommendation with a final rule that requires a PMA filing for these devices, concluding a process that took much longer than the typical rulemaking.
The International Medical Device Regulators Forum (IMDRF) has posted a guidance that spells out the use of a common document for regulatory review for member regulatory authorities, a mechanism that might ease the lives of manufacturers across the globe.
Hundreds of executives from biopharma companies are signing onto an April 10 letter decrying a U.S. district judge’s decision last week to stay the FDA approval of mifepristone, which is used in more than half of all abortions in the U.S.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Astrazeneca, Brim, CNS, Enanta, Everest, Merck.
Batteries used in medical devices don’t always perform as expected, but Abbott Laboratories has issued an advisory to users of its Freestyle glucose monitoring systems in connection with overheating of the batteries used in the device’s readers, a problem the company said is not related to the batteries themselves. Abbott Park, Ill.-based Abbott has received reports of battery swelling and overheating in the reader unit, but advised users that use of non-Abbott charging cables seems to drive the risk of such episodes, urging users to stick with the USB charging cables that came with the readers.
The U.S. FDA has wrapped up an October 2015 draft guidance for animal studies for medical devices, which prompted some lengthy responses from stakeholders concerned about some unique terms, such as device “handling.” Despite industrial opposition to the inclusion of that term, the final guidance retains the term handling and defines it in part as the manner in which the device “responds to the demands of the operator,” a term that may or may not be encompassed by the FDA’s overarching policy for human factors engineering.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Edap Tms, Icentia, Restor3d.
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