DUBLIN – The European Medicines Agency’s human medicines committee, the CHMP, all but closed out the year by issuing positive opinions on eight marketing authorization applications during its December meeting. Its work for 2020 is not quite yet done, however. It has scheduled an extraordinary meeting for Dec. 29 to review an application from Pfizer Inc. and Biontech AG for their mRNA COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b2.
The FDA’s vaccine advisory committee voted 17-4 with one abstention Dec. 10 to recommend an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer Inc./Biontech SE mRNA vaccine BNT-162b2 to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 16 and older.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been more than just a distraction for the U.S. FDA, which started 2020 with a number of ambitions regarding digital health regulation. Despite having unveiled the Digital Health Center of Excellence to great fanfare, the agency is struggling to wrap up major digital health programs, such as the precertification program for software as a medical device, leaving the FDA with a daunting agenda for digital health in the coming year.
The U.S. FDA has made it easier for people who want to get tested for COVID-19, granting emergency use authorization (EUA) for direct-to-consumer sales of Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings’ (Labcorp) Pixel COVID-19 test home collection kit. With this latest EUA, any individual 18 years and older can purchase the Pixel test system without a prescription.
The latest global regulatory news, changes and updates affecting medical devices and technologies, including: Senate passes counterfeit device destruction bill; MHRA posts device compliance dates for Brexit.
Regulatory snapshots, including global submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Advanced Bionics, Advanced Medtech, Laboratory Corporation of America, Oxford Immunotec Global, Recor Medical, Virocule.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Atox, Biogen, Diamedica, Editas, Eisai, Entera, Hoth, Lantheus, Neoleukin, Oblato, Scynexis, SOBI, Ultragenyx, X4.
The U.S. FDA authorized Burlington, N.C.-based Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings’ (Labcorp’s) Pixel COVID-19 test home collection kit for use by any individual 18 years and older without a prescription.