Shares in Orphazyme A/S cratered after the FDA rejected its arimoclomol for Niemann-Pick disease type C, a rare and potentially fatal inherited condition where fat builds in tissues and organs.
The FDA responded on Thursday to longtime industry calls for the agency to clarify the distinction between the “serving” and “remanufacturing” of a medical device with new draft guidance to provide consistency and a better understanding of the applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. The 35-page document details its current thinking on the distinction.
With the advent of wearable digital health technologies, patient-generated health data (PGHD) will play an increasingly central role in evidence generation for medical device companies. Speakers on a recent FDA workshop advised that there are several barriers to the use of PGHD for evidence generation, however, such as the perennial headache of data interoperability and a new twist on the question of patient trust, problems that are likely to plague the field for the foreseeable future.
Livanova plc has launched an IDE trial of its Aura6000 sleep apnea device, following approval by the FDA to proceed with the study. The implantable pulse generator (IPG) is designed to treat patients with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who do not get relief from a traditional continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine or refuse to use one.
With paralysis affecting more than 5 million Americans, devices that serve as brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are increasingly important, even if few are commercially available. The FDA has responded to the predicament with a leapfrog guidance, a preliminary form of guidance designed to foster more interaction with industry and encourage developers to move along on development programs for devices that will aid patients in restoring lost motor and/or sensory capabilities.
Blueprint Medicines Corp. gained the FDA’s nod for Ayvakit (avapritinib) to treat systemic mastocytosis (SM), adding another indication to the KIT inhibitor’s label. For the first time, patients have available a targeted therapy designed to block D816V mutant KIT, the central driver of the disease.
More than four months after its original PDUFA date of Feb. 2, 2021, Mallinckrodt plc’s Stratagraft gained FDA approval for use in deep partial-thickness thermal burns.
Acutus Medical Inc. scored big with regulators in recent weeks. The company, which focuses on devices to diagnose and treat cardiac arrhythmias, received FDA approval to launch an investigational device exemption clinical trial for its Acqblate Force sensing ablation catheter and system in atrial fibrillation just two weeks after gaining CE mark approval for a broad suite of electrophysiology products.
The FDA granted breakthrough device designation to Volumetrix LLC for its NIVAHF monitoring system for heart failure. The device is the first application of the company’s noninvasive venous waveform analysis (NIVA) technology, which captures and analyzes vital information about blood volume to assess patient status.
The controversy over the use of paclitaxel in devices for the peripheral vasculature has taken a significant bite out of sales, but a new study serves to help reverse the narrative regarding mortality. According to a study of more than 168,000 Medicare patients, stents and angioplasty balloons coated with paclitaxel (PTX) were non-inferior to non-coated devices for mortality out to nearly three years, a finding that may encourage clinicians to return to normal utilization patterns and thus help to restore sales volumes.