With Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s FDA clearance for Amvuttra (vutrisiran) in the rearview mirror, investors are looking ahead to potentially label-widening phase III data related to another, already approved drug: Onpattro (patisiran).
Tel Aviv-based startup Scopio Labs Ltd. has received U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance for its artificial intelligence (AI) powered cell morphology platform, X100HT. The laboratory device is designed to locate and display images of white cells, red cells and platelets acquired from fixed and stained peripheral blood smears. Analysis of the images is then provided using AI technology.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted June 8 to pass the legislation reauthorizing a number of user fee programs at the FDA, a welcome bit of good news for FDA-regulated industries. Nonetheless, there are several substantive differences between H.R. 7667 and the parallel Senate bill, differences that may take some doing to overcome before a final bill can be forwarded to the Oval Office.
The U.S. FDA has posted notice of an advisory issued by Dublin-based Medtronic plc, regarding the Heartware ventricular assist device due to a pump weld defect, which the agency has identified as a class I recall. The recall affects devices that have been in use since 2006 and is associated with the entry of moisture into the pump center post, which can de-magnetize the magnets and thus trigger malrotation and consequently damage to the welds.
The U.S. FDA’s guidance for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) in medical devices has several moving parts, a consequence of the fact that the scope included cardiac electrophysiology devices and non-implantable medical devices. For the most part, the terms of the guidance will go into force within 60 days, but the compliance deadline for in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) doesn’t go into force until June 6, 2023, giving these manufacturers much more breathing room than their non-IVD counterparts.
The U.S. FDA determined that the pandemic required an adjustment to applicant turn-around times for the agency’s responses to regulatory filings, an allowance that was unavoidable given the impact of the pandemic on applicants’ ability to respond. That policy has now been reversed, the agency said, which means that a failure to respond to queries about 510(k) filings within 180 days will lead to an assumption on the agency’s part that the applicant has withdrawn the submission.
The U.S. FDA has received a citizen’s petition regarding the use of neuropsychological testing prior to placement of a deep brain stimulation (DBS) device for treatment of Parkinson’s disease. The petitioners, most of whose names were redacted, said that there is no standardized test for this purpose, and thus the patient should have sole discretion of evaluating the meaning of their own tests or the use of these tests should not be seen dispositive of the question of whether to go ahead with placement of a DBS device for Parkinson’s.
U.K.’s Angle plc has become the first company to receive a U.S. FDA product clearance for harvesting intact cancer cells for analysis. Angle reported it scored FDA clearance for its Parsortix system for the capture and harvest of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from metastatic breast cancer patient blood. Shares in the AIM-listed company soared by more than 50% following the news.
Ethylene oxide (EtO) has been a mainstay in medical device sterilization for decades, but fears of carcinogenicity sparked protests outside EtO sterilization plants in Georgia and Illinois in 2018. While the COVID-19 pandemic overrode those concerns for two years, the FDA has opened a pilot program for conversion of sterilization methods that would require fewer regulatory filings than would otherwise be the case.
Device makers do not engage in direct-to-consumer advertisement at the same pace as drug makers, but advertising and promotions are still a minefield of potential enforcement action for the unwary manufacturer. According to Jesse Atkins and Nate Downing of Gardner Law in Stillwater, Minn., even a minor skirmish with the FDA can result in an extensive review of standard operating procedures, a potentially expensive and time-consuming distraction from companies fighting for market share in the hotly contested U.S. market.
