The truth that every action has a reaction is being proven again in the public square of the U.S. as the shrill, endless clamor of politicians hoping to score against their opponents via health care issues or accomplishments threatens to undermine confidence in the FDA, the products it approves and even the guidance offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC). In the past, politicians from both parties blamed “greedy” biopharma companies and self-appointed social influencers for patients refusing to fill prescriptions, get tested or be immunized. Now they have themselves to blame.

The truth that every action has a reaction is being proven again in the public square of the U.S. as the shrill, endless clamor of politicians hoping to score against their opponents via health care issues or accomplishments threatens to undermine confidence in the FDA, the products it approves and even the guidance offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC). In the past, politicians from both parties blamed “greedy” biopharma companies and self-appointed social influencers for patients refusing to fill prescriptions, get tested or be immunized. Now they have themselves to blame.

As of Aug. 13, more than 90,000 patients hospitalized in the U.S. with COVID-19 already had been given access to convalescent plasma through a national expanded use protocol (EAP) sponsored by the Mayo Clinic. The FDA’s decision Sunday to grant emergency use authorization (EUA) for the potential therapy will further expand access to convalescent plasma for hospitalized patients throughout the country at a time when fully approved COVID-19 treatments are nonexistent and even EUAs are few and far between.

Stryker Corp. has launched its Surpass Evolve flow diverter following an earlier U.S. FDA approval. According to the company, it is the first 64-wire cobalt chromium flow diverter in the U.S. designed to redirect blood flow and promote aneurysm healing. Ajay Wakhloo, the first physician to complete a commercial case in the U.S., noted that the offering builds on Stryker’s Surpass Streamline. “By increasing the braid angle, the novel 64-wire device delivers excellent flow diversion and a highly flexible implant for enhanced vessel wall contact. The higher mesh density of Surpass Evolve vs. traditional 48-wire flow diverters may lead to faster aneurysm occlusion for patients," Wakhloo said.

The U.S. Administrative Procedures Act (APA) has proven controversial for device makers in that the associated requirements for rulemaking have been the subject of regulatory end-runs, by some accounts. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said in an Aug. 11 statement, however, that it is time to update the APA because the it has ossified in the 74 years since passage, while an attached report estimated that government regulation adds as much as $2 trillion in compliance costs to the economy every year.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has ordered the FDA to cease requiring developers of lab-developed tests (LDTs) to go through the agency’s premarket review mechanisms before offering an LDT. The context of the order might at first blush be interpreted as limiting the scope of the order to the public health emergency (PHE) to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the statement expands the temporal scope by referencing a need for rulemaking on the FDA’s part, one of several indications that this order is intended to outlast the PHE.

The U.S. FDA has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to Lumiradx UK Ltd. for its point-of-care SARS-CoV-2 antigen test, which aims to speed the diagnosis of people suspected of having the virus that causes COVID-19. The test detects antigen nucleocapsid protein from a nasal swab taken from symptomatic patients and delivers results in less than 12 minutes.

Avoiding the political overtones that seem to be more viral than COVID-19 these days, Anand Shah, deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs at the FDA, stressed that even though the agency is making decisions in real time in response to the urgency of the pandemic in the U.S., its decisions are being driven by scientific integrity, regulatory independence and the FDA’s historic commitment to ensuring the safety and efficacy of the products it regulates.

The U.S. FDA has greenlighted two new modules for Siemens Healthineers’ AI-Rad Companion platform, giving radiologists new artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist in interpreting magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of the brain and prostate. The AI-Rad Companion Brain MR for Morphometry Analysis and AI-Rad Companion Prostate MR for Biopsy Support join earlier intelligent software modules for Chest CT.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. released updated software and new instructions for its Taqpath COVID-19 Combo Kit, a widely used COVID-19 test kit that is also the basis for several other coronavirus diagnostics, following issuance of a letter to clinical laboratory staff and health care providers by the U.S. FDA about the risk of false results with the test. Separately, the Waltham, Mass.-based company has released the first in a series of hematology-oncology assays designed to run on its Ion Torrent Genexus system.