The European Parliament (EP) has passed the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), bringing the legislation one step closer to full passage into law, with passage by the European Council the only remaining hurdle.
The European Commission (EC) has proposed another delay in the compliance deadlines for the In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation (IVDR) that eases the existing timelines by roughly two and a half years. The news was welcomed by Medtech Europe, which nonetheless pressed the EC and others to patch up some of the issues that led to the new extensions in the first place.
The recent decision by the EU to delay the implementation dates for the Medical Device Regulation (MDR) initiative is having ripple effects across the globe as other regulatory jurisdictions amend their policies to keep pace. The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) have both revised their strategies to align with the latest MDR delay, giving devices that will remain available in the EU a similar extension in the U.K. and Australia.
The European Council applied its seal of approval to a proposal to extend the deadlines for the Medical Device Regulation (MDR), providing industry some critical breathing room to obtain certification for devices brought to market under the legacy Medical Device Directive (MDD).
The European Parliament (EP) has voted to affirm the proposal by the European Commission (EC) to extend the compliance timelines for the Medical Device Regulation (MDR) in an urgent vote that eliminated any chance of debate. The vote was a landslide, coming in at 564 votes in support and three nays.
The European Union’s Medical Device Regulation (MDR) and In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation (IVDR) each allow a hospital to develop a device or an in vitro diagnostic for use solely in that hospital, but there is no regulatory free pass despite the lack of commercial intent. While the latest guidance on these in-house tests acknowledges that the hospital must determine the degree to which it must comply with the relevant regulation, any hospital that makes and uses an in-house diagnostic or device must develop a risk management mechanism for that device or diagnostic, not an easy lift for entities that may be glancingly familiar at best with conventional regulatory schemes.
The European Union’s (EU) Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) drew a fair amount of criticism when it was first released, but Team-NB, the association of notified bodies (NBs) for the EU, has weighed in with some less than flattering observations. The group’s position paper on the legislation said that the act would not only up-classify some artificial intelligence algorithms to a higher risk class but would also resurrect the backlog of applications because of burdensome new requirements for NBs, thus exacerbating an existing crisis of med tech availability in the EU.
“The incomplete in vitro diagnostic regulation (IVDR) poses critical ongoing risks that need urgent resolution,” said Medtech Europe, as it welcomed the coming into force of the new EU regulatory system on May 26. Five years since the publication of the regulation, and after the industry has invested “significant resources into complying with its requirement,” some key elements of the infrastructure “are still not fully operational or even in place,” according to the trade body. “It is critical that all needed infrastructure is put in place and made operational without delay,” said Serge Bernasconi, CEO of Medtech Europe.
The guidances for in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) developed by the European Union’s Medical Device Coordination Group (MDCG) are only a reflection of the In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation (IVDR), but they do provide test developers with some important details.
The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the roll-out of European Union’s new med-tech regulations has sparked concerns about in vitro diagnostic availability, but relief from compliance deadlines has now been achieved. The European Parliament and the European Council have agreed to ease the compliance dates of the In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation (IVDR).