The U.S. response to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic may by now be the stuff of public health policy lore, with both the FDA and the CDC contributing to the chaos in the first months of the pandemic. The Office of Inspector General has issued an analysis of the situation, and while OIG revisited some of the known miscues, the report also made the case that a national strategy for pandemic response will be needed if federal government efforts in the future are to be less a hazard to the lives of American citizens than those seen in the first half of 2020.
Baxter International Inc. has scored FDA clearance for an infusion pump used to deliver small amounts of fluid at low rates, often in pediatric, neonatal and anesthesia care settings. The Novum Iq syringe infusion pump also features Dose Iq Safety Software, a web-based, customizable drug library that incorporates titration technology to reduce dosage errors during patient treatment.
The U.S. FDA released a draft guidance for computer software assurance, a document that spells out the agency’s expectations for computer systems used to log a manufacturing site’s compliance and manufacturing activities.
Magnus Medical Inc. received FDA clearance for a neuromodulation platform to treat major depressive disorder (MDD) in adults for whom antidepressant medication has been ineffective.
The U.S. FDA has granted breakthrough device designation to Potrero Medical Inc. for its AKI Predict machine learning algorithm for the advanced prediction of acute kidney injury (AKI) associated with intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) in intensive care patients recovering from cardiac surgery.
The toxicity associated with oncology therapies is the stuff of legend with clinicians and patients, and thus the U.S. FDA and manufacturers have been working to fine tune these dosing regimens. However, the FDA's Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE) includes a programmatic effort to optimize dosing regimens, which led to an editorial by FDA officials that calls on industry to consider whether the maximum tolerated dose paradigm is really the optimal approach to oncology drug development.
The U.S. FDA has advised the public that it is in possession of 10 reports of squamous cell carcinoma and 12 reports of various lymphomas in connection with breast implants, a series of findings that are separate from known incidents of lymphoma.
For a company that dominates the market for devices designed to improve breathing during sleep, Royal Philips NV has had the devil of time catching its own breath over the last 15 months as it has issued wave after wave of recalls.
A variety of positive airway pressure (PAP) devices made by Philips Respironics Inc. have been subject to a lengthy and expensive recall due to the use of a problematic material in acoustic insulation foam, but now the company has a new headache in connection with its offerings. The FDA said this latest safety notification is due to the possible presence of a plastic that is contaminated with a non-compatible material, although this recall affects fewer than 400 units.
