The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is once again in the crosshairs thanks to issues related to pharmacy benefits managers and coverage of novel medical devices, with Congress mulling over two dozen pieces of Medicare-related legislation.
The U.S. FDA is going straight to final guidance with its “Considerations for the conduct of clinical trials of medical products during major disruptions due to disasters and public health emergencies [PHEs].”
Shares of ARS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:SPRY) plummeted 55.8% Sept. 20 on word that the U.S. FDA issued a complete response letter (CRL) for Neffy, despite receiving a recommendation for approval in May from the agency’s advisory committee (adcom) and following a three-month delay in action.
The U.S. FDA is still sorting through the feedback for its proposal to modestly align the Quality System Regulation with ISO 13485, but the agency has posted a draft four-year plan for regulatory harmonization that is substantially broader in scope than just quality management system considerations. While this proposal addresses a significant need for device makers working in multiple markets, the objectives include an assessment of at least nine non-FDA harmonization proposals by the end of fiscal year 2025, a clear indicator that harmonization will continue to be every bit the slog it has proven to be in recent years.
The U.S. FDA’s Accreditation Scheme for Conformity Assessment (ASCA) program is one of a number of efforts on the agency’s part to reduce the drag on premarket medical device submissions, but the agency has now converted the ASCA pilot into a full-blown regulatory program. Fortunately for both the FDA and industry, most of the guidance groundwork is already in place, making the ASCA program a ready-to-go method for streamlining at least one element of premarket applications for medical devices.
A Sept. 21 U.S. FDA advisory committee meeting will either be a “Hail Mary” or a last gasp of life for ITCA-650, a twice-yearly implantable exenatide-device combination product intended to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes.
Before the Wall Street opening bell on Tuesday, Boston Scientific Corp. reported plans to acquire privately held Relievant Medsystems Inc. for $850 million in cash at closing plus undisclosed payments contingent on sales performance of the company’s lead product, the Intracept intraosseous nerve ablation system, over the next three years.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is once again in the crosshairs thanks to issues related to pharmacy benefits managers and coverage of novel medical devices, with Congress mulling over two dozen pieces of Medicare-related legislation.
Developers of combination products face an unusual dilemma in their interactions with the U.S. FDA, given that the data for the constituent products reside in multiple product centers. Some of the related clunkiness may soon be a thing of the past thanks to a new four-year proposal to overhaul the FDA’s information technology infrastructure, which among other things will emphasize a more seamless sharing of data across centers, precisely the kind of initiative that would facilitate reviews of combination products.
If the U.S. FDA has its way, biosimilars and interchangeable biosimilars would no longer be a difference with a distinction – at least when it comes to labeling. Instead of distinguishing between the two, the agency is recommending that the labeling for both follow-ons include a “biosimilarity statement.”
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