The next FDA device user fee agreement is formally in negotiations but a recent agency report shows device makers are increasingly keen to interact with FDA reviewers. This is a fact that may make it difficult to keep the next user fee schedule from increasing dramatically over the current agreement.

The U.S. FDA noted in a series of Federal Register declarations that several device makers are working with the Patent and Trademark Office to claim regulatory review times for their devices, including the Sapien 3 Ultra Resilia device by Edwards Lifesciences Corp.

With the June 9 U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee party-line vote of 12-11, Susan Monarez’s nomination is headed to the Senate floor where she could become the first CDC director to go through the confirmation process. That’s thanks to a provision in the bipartisan PREVENT Pandemics Act that was signed into law in 2022.

Patent reform in the U.S. revolves largely around the subject matter eligibility question, but Congress is reluctant to intervene – a predicament addressed recently by Andrei Iancu, formerly the director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services indicated it will act on a previous proposal to terminate the Treatment Choices Model for ESRD at the end of the current calendar year because of a failure of the program to deliver on the promised efficiencies and improvement in outcomes.

President Donald Trump signed House Resolution 1, the final version of which does not impose a moratorium on state legislation governing the use of AI. The bill does, however, restore the full deductibility of research and development expenses, which will be retroactive to 2022 for businesses that gross $31 million or less per year.

Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration reported June 30 several new regulatory requirements are in effect, including a new mandate regarding the use of unique device identifiers for implanted medical devices.

The final Medicare coverage memo for transcatheter edge-to-edge repair for tricuspid valve regurgitation largely replicates the April 2025 draft, but cardiology centers will not have to bring an electrophysiologist to the patient’s care team to be permitted to practice these devices.

The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulator Agency dropped a guidance for digital mental health technologies that clarifies several key points, such as when the DMHT qualifies as software as a medical device.

The House of Representatives passed H.R. 1, also known as One Big Beautiful Bill, which will restore personal income tax cuts that expired in 2022. However, the bill also restores research and development tax credits, a provision that drew immediate praise from industry.