Reliance Medical Systems LLC agreed to pay $1 million to address allegations of violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS), but the company has responded to that outcome with a blistering riposte.
A “clean” user fee bill with no congressionally added policy riders. It’s been a biopharma and med-tech dream for years. But now that U.S. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) has introduced such a bill, it could prove a nightmare, given competing legislation and the tight timetable for reauthorizing the user fee programs before the clock winds down on the current agreements Sept. 30 when fiscal 2022 ends.
The use of organoids in preclinical research has reached a tipping point, with U.S. FDA approval of the first drug to enter clinical trials on the basis of efficacy data derived only from these advanced cell models.
The U.S. FDA’s latest draft guidance for premarket cybersecurity considerations expands considerably on the previous edition, and suggests that the manufacturer’s cybersecurity responsibilities include security in a health care facility’s network.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a complaint in civil court against Fresenius Vascular Care Inc., of Berwyn, Pa., alleging the company had performed unnecessary procedures in nine clinics in the New York area. When paired with a recent Supreme Court case that went against Davita Inc., of Denver, this action may signal a source of pressure on dialysis services in the U.S., a set of developments that have already cost both these companies significantly on the stock market.
The U.S. FDA has given Sonalasense Inc. a green light to conduct two clinical trials in life-threatening brain tumors using sonodynamic therapy (SDT) and SONALA-001, an intravenous proprietary formulation of 5-aminolevulinic acid, or ALA. The studies – in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and recurrent glioblastoma (rGBM) – mark the first time SDT will have been used in clinical trials.
The U.S. FDA’s two-day meeting of the patient engagement advisory committee (PEAC) covered a range of issues surrounding augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) products, but patient information and education was one of the key considerations. Naiem Nassiri of Yale Medicine cautioned, however, that a 15-minute briefing between doctor and patient during a face-to-face encounter would likely create more confusion than clarity, a conclusion that would suggest that other patient education methods will likely be needed.
COVID-19 is the unwanted gift that keeps on giving. The U.S. CDC unwrapped one of those “presents” in a July 12 report that showed the threat of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) infections has worsened — with resistant hospital-onset infections and deaths in the U.S. each increasing at least 15% during the first year of the pandemic.
Legislation that would renew the U.S. FDA’s user fee programs is stuck in process on Capitol Hill, a predicament that seems to resist resolution to date. FDA commissioner Robert Califf said on a July 12 webinar that the FDA “is a decision-making machine” that is reliant on both user fees and congressional appropriations, and that a failure on the part of Congress to act on user fee legislation may force the agency to halt new hires and possibly lay off some FDA staff.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been moving aggressively on privacy issues in connection with health data in the past two years, but the agency has issued an advisory of sorts to collectors of these data points. The FTC said July 11 that it intends to crack down on violators in an effort to protect data privacy.
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