The U.S. FDA’s concerns about the 510(k) program over the past decade-plus are practically the stuff of regulatory urban legend, but the agency has just unveiled a trio of draft guidances to address some of those concerns. Perhaps the most significant of these is a draft guidance for selection of a predicate device for a 510(k) filing, a document that may come across to industry as little more than an attempt to limit the devices that a manufacturer can recite in a 510(k) filing.
The U.S. FDA recently posted another round of recalls for the Cardiosave line of intra-aortic balloon pumps (IABPs) by Datascope Corp., advising users to make sure they have a backup unit at the ready in the case of device failure. However, the agency noted that “alternative treatments are limited,” a clear sign that this market lacks competition, most likely due to a lack of incentives for the private sector to invest in this class of devices.
U.S. federal preemption of state liability law for medical devices is firmly established for PMA devices, but this is not the case for devices that are cleared via the U.S. FDA‘s 510(k) program. However, some courts have gone a step further in disallowing defendants in product liability litigation from entering evidence of 510(k) clearances from the FDA, a practice that played a role in a $3.3 million verdict against Murray Hill, N.J.-based C.R. Bard Inc. that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit decreed is not eligible for a new trial.
Some U.S. FDA inspections go better than other ones, but the agency’s inspection of the Boston plant operated by a subsidiary of Princeton, N.J.-based Integra Lifesiences Holding Corp. was not one of those with a quick resolution. The agency said in a July 17 warning letter that Integra will have to obtain certification for the site in each of the next three years after finding considerable fault with operations, including one citation the agency said is a carryover from a warning letter issued in 2019.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) might not be the talk of the town in the world of cardiology medical devices, but the condition has a devastating effect on a large number of lives, particularly in the case of early disease onset. San Francisco-based Viz.ai Inc. has won a de novo from the U.S. FDA for its algorithm for identification of patients at risk of HCM, the aptly named Viz HCM, a product the company believes will not only save lives but may save the U.S. health care system a large amount of money as well.
The U.S. FDA’s position on predetermined change control protocols (PCCPs) is still in draft form, even though at least one company has won a marketing authorization with a PCCP attached to the underlying artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm. While the agency is still on the fence about a PCCP that incorporates a potential change in the indication for use, regulatory attorney Brigid DeCoursey Bondoc told BioWorld that industry should not reflexively avoid proposing a PCCP with a such change so long as the proposal includes answers to the questions the FDA is sure to ask.
Lush vegetation is great for a gardener, but alarming for a cardiologist. For them, the news that Angiodynamics Inc. received U.S. FDA breakthrough device designation for its Angiovac system to remove vegetation from the right heart is surely cheering. Right heart vegetations--masses of fibrin, platelets and infectious pathogens--are indications of serious infective endocarditis.
The Biden administration recently announced an extension of the comment period for a request for information on harmonization of cybersecurity regulation, a proposal that could conflict with FDA regulation of medical device cybersecurity.
A timely discharge from the hospital requires that a lot of things go just right, and GE Healthcare just scored a win from FDA for its Portrait vital signs monitoring system that offers wireless, wearable tracking of oxygenation, pulse and respiration rate. GE said this system allows patients to be mobile during those first few critical hours post-surgery while providing non-stop vital sign tracking, a development that may allow clinicians to intervene more quickly when problems arise and thus help the patient recover and head home without setbacks.
Accuray Inc. offered a classic good news-bad news set-up for investors on Wednesday, with a notable FDA 510(k) clearance balanced by a miss on fourth quarter revenue and projections for fiscal year 2024 significantly below consensus expectations. Still, the takeaway is generally positive, with several strong catalysts expected to build momentum for the company in the coming year and much of the underperformance attributable to foreign exchange headwinds that have plagued many med-tech companies.
