The U.S. FDA has released a draft guidance for the use of data monitoring committees (DMCs) for clinical trials for devices and drugs, which would overwrite a similar guidance from 2006. This new draft guidance explicitly states that clinical studies more commonly employ DMCs than was the case 18 years ago and would seem to suggest that the agency will more routinely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

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.

The U.S. Medicare program for coverage of U.S. FDA-designated breakthrough devices has gone through some significant alterations over the past few years, but there is legislation on Capitol Hill that would codify this program at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Mark Leahey, president and CEO of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA), told BioWorld that one of the sources of drag on this kind of legislation is how the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scores the legislation, a problem that might not be resolved until CBO works through other legislation.

In a first, the U.S. FDA accepted an artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning-model into its Innovative Science and Technology Approaches for New Drugs (ISTAND) pilot program for drug development. The program will support use of Deliberate AI Inc.’s anxiety and depression assessment tool, called the AI-generated Clinical Outcome Assessment (AI-COA), as a qualified drug development tool.

Cyted Ltd. received U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance for its Endosign capsule technology, a non-endoscopic capsule sponge device used to collect pan-esophageal samples to detect esophageal pre-cancer and other conditions. The company believes that the minimally invasive test will be able to help prevent deaths from esophageal cancer when offered as a screening test to people on long-term medication for heartburn.

The U.S. FDA has announced the next stage in its program to down-classify a series of in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) from class III to class II, a change that would significantly ease the premarket requirements for these test types. Much of the emphasis here is on companion diagnostic (CDx) tests, a category of products that is the focus of a separate FDA imperative, but there are those who view this down-classification regime as little more than a meager attempt to paste over a massive impending regulatory overhang.

Royal Philips NV recently received some good news from the U.S. FDA which cleared its latest transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) ultrasound transducer, amidst ongoing efforts with the regulatory body to address problems with its sleep business. The X11-4t Mini 3D TEE transducer is 35% smaller than previous versions and is designed to provide cardiologists with high quality 3D images of the heart and its internal structure.

Hologic Inc.’s focus on women’s health is looking like a brilliant move as the company lands U.S. FDA clearance for its Genius digital diagnostics system with the Genius cervical artificial intelligence algorithm, making it the first digital cytology system with clearance, the company said.