The U.S. FDA has released a draft guidance for the use of data monitoring committees (DMCs) for clinical trials for devices and drugs, which would overwrite a similar guidance from 2006. This new draft guidance explicitly states that clinical studies more commonly employ DMCs than was the case 18 years ago and would seem to suggest that the agency will more routinely require the use of DMCs than was common practice in the past.

The U.S. FDA recently convened an advisory hearing to review the agency’s list of essential items for public health emergencies and led the hearing with its own list to which the advisory committee recommended numerous additions. How the FDA will respond remains to be seen, but the FDA’s list may grow significantly larger despite that industry representatives advised that existing supply chain redundancies would seem to suggest that some devices and associated items need not be subject to FDA supply chain oversight.

It’s been a good month for Illuminoss Medical Inc. In less than three weeks, the East Providence, R.I.-based company received U.S. FDA clearance of its new light-emitting diode (LED) console, achieved the 10,000th use of its bone-strengthening technology and presented promising results of research on use of its signature blue light for antimicrobial applications.

Elicera Therapeutics AB has received approval from the Swedish Medical Products Agency to start a phase I/II study of chimeric antibody receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy ELC-301 in patients with refractory or relapsed B-cell lymphoma.

The International Medical Device Regulators Forum will meet in Washington in March 2024, a location which would seem to guarantee robust attendance. The meeting agenda includes an extensive amount of time for specialized regulatory pathways, an effort to promote the incentives for development of orphan and pediatric devices across the globe.

The Feb. 8 U.S. drug pricing hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee started out as a spectacle in which Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) rehashed his usual talking points as he lectured the CEOs of Bristol Myers Squibb Co., Johnson & Johnson and Merck & Co. Inc. about how their companies charge so much more for their drugs in the U.S. than in other countries. But despite the show-trial aspects of the hearing, or what Ranking Member Bill Cassidy (R-La.) called Sanders’ ongoing “CEO-whack-a-mole” agenda, some facts came through that could lead to pricing reforms if Congress has the bipartisan will to do so.

Boston Scientific Corp. notched another win with the U.S. FDA approval of its spinal cord stimulator (SCS), Wavewriter, for treatment of non-surgical back pain just a week after receiving the agency’s nod for its Farapulse pulsed field ablation system. The new indication comes four months after expansion of approved uses for Wavewriter to include painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

Many health care facilities in the U.S. have deployed artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that are tailored for the patient population seen in those clinical settings, a practice that avoids FDA regulation by removing the question of commercial distribution.

Toku Inc. recently obtained CE and UKCA marks for its artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Clair, which evaluates the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) using retinal images captured during an eye exam.