One of the catchiest songs written by the 1970s British glam rock band, Sweet, is “Love Is Like Oxygen,” released in 1978. The chorus includes the lyrics, “Love is like oxygen; you get too much, you get too high.” Apparently,...more
On September 6, 2023, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a trio of draft guidances in its efforts to “strengthen and modernize” the 510(k) Program and provide for more “predictability, consistency, and...more
The motivation for this month’s post was my frustration with the techniques for searching the FDA’s 510(k) database. Here I’m not talking about just using the search feature that FDA provides online. Instead, I have...more
You might be thinking, that’s an odd title: obviously FDA’s breakthrough device designation is helpful. However, after looking at the data, my conclusion is that I would avoid the breakthrough device designation for any...more
Is the decision to submit a 510(k) application versus a Premarket Application (PMA) at the sole discretion of a medical device manufacturer? The answer is not always clear to product liability lawyers, judges, and juries. FDA...more
The legal definitions of a drug and a medical device set forth in the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act have some important overlapping provisions. Because of the overlapping provisions, theoretically the U.S. Food and Drug...more
Food/Dietary Supplements - FDA to Hold Public Meeting on Food Standards of Identity – The FDA will hold a public meeting “to give interested persons an opportunity to discuss FDA’s effort to modernize food standards of...more
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently finalized its guidance on the Special 510(k) Program—an optional pathway to commercial medical devices that have been modified since their previous 510(k) clearance. The Special...more
There are three types of Premarket Notification 510(k)s that may be submitted to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA): traditional, special and abbreviated. Under the recently finalized Safety and Performance Based...more
It’s that time of year again—the end of one and beginning of another—when we pause, reflect and look forward to the year ahead. In this retrospective, we consider the past year’s legal developments in the drug and medical...more
Last week the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a proposed set of new regulations to further define and update the De Novo review process. Although De Novo review has been available for two decades, for the past 20...more
Background: The Increasing Regulation of Medical Devices Subject to 510(k) Clearance - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) 510(k) premarket clearance pathway is the road to commercialization for thousands of...more
On November 26, 2018, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., and Jeff Shuren, M.D., Director of FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), issued an extensive...more
On October 1, 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a pilot expansion of the Special 510(k) Program. The Special 510(k) Program was developed to help streamline the 510(k) premarket notification process for...more
In its continued effort to reduce time to market for regulated products and improve transparency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a draft guidance last Friday that, among other things, proposes to (i) expand...more
Over the past couple of years, FDA has introduced multiple programs allowing faster review of medical devices in order to get them to market more quickly. Some of the FDA’s efforts have been highly visible, such as the...more
This is the third installment of our year-in-review series covering major developments at FDA. While the previous two installments, pertain to FDA actions on drugs and biologics, this post will address developments related...more
Yesterday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency) took a number of steps to “advance medical device innovation and help patients gain faster access to beneficial technologies,” as characterized by FDA...more
On March 13, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency) identified a list of 1,003 types of Class II medical devices that, when finalized, will be exempt from the Agency’s premarket notification (i.e.,...more
The Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) recently issued a draft guidance on the 510(k) Third Party (TP) Review Program. The TP Review Program (formerly known as the Accredited Persons Program) allows FDA to...more
The summer of 2016 saw a flood of new medical device-related guidance documents coming out of FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH). Some of these draft guidance documents, such as those addressing device...more
The Draft Guidance may not significantly increase the number of 510(k)s filed, but likely would increase manufacturers’ procedural and documentation burdens. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency) issued...more
On the same day the Food and Drug Administration issued its revised draft guidance document on when to submit a new 510(k) premarket notification for an existing medical device, it released a similar document specific to...more
FDA released two new draft guidances on Monday, August 8 in an attempt to help device manufacturers determine when a modification triggers the obligation to file a new 510(k) under 21 C.F.R. § 807.81(a)(3). The first draft...more