You Cannot Sue Somebody For Criticizing Your Product, Even if Unfair

A company that manufactures thermometers that predicts fertility status of women sued a vigorous critic of their product for defamation, and the courts dismissed the lawsuit citing protection of the expression of opinion affirming well-established dogma that people can opine freely about a product, negatively. Valley Electronics, the makers of Daysy, the thermometer that calculates … Read more

When Will the Pandemic End and Will FDA Ever Go Back to 2019 Practices?

Although many of the pandemic related restrictions are easing across the country and many part of the World, it does not seem that the government will be ready to formally declare that the pandemic emergency is over and many of the practices implemented during the emergency would likely stay for good. While the start of … Read more

FDA Provides Specifics For the Recall Process

All manufacturers of FDA regulated products are required to be “recall ready” per specific criteria set by the FDA, at all times, failure to do so could lead to FDA compliance actions. The primary target audience for the new FDA guidance on the topic appears to be manufacturers of food, supplements, cosmetics, and many other … Read more

FDA Concludes that Cell Phones Don’t Cause Cancer in Children

In a public service announcement this week, FDA stated that there is no evidence that cell phone use causes cancer in children and teens. This was based on a recent study in about 2800 children and teens in 14 countries: 900 kids with brain tumor and 1900 healthy kids. Cell phones emit radio frequency (RF) … Read more

For Demographic Diversity in Clinical Trials, Go to Non-US Sites

Clinical trials in the US lack demographic diversity. Multiple programs from FDA in the last 5-10 years to boost higher clinical trial participation from Black and Latino patients in the US have failed. However, recruiting patients from countries in Africa and South America has not been discussed much even though it may be one way … Read more

At-Home Diagnostics Post-Pandemic 

The US government shipped free home tests for Covid to every home in the US. The magnitude of this event should not be lost. It is the first time that home tests for any infectious disease got such a strong endorsement from the Federal government. Does this indicate that home tests for other infectious diseases … Read more

FDA Has Stopped Accepting Covid Related EUAs, It Seems.

Even though the US government has not officially withdrawn the Declaration of Public Health Emergency (PHE) related to Covid from February 2020, there are multiple reports that FDA is not accepting any new Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) applications for diagnostic products under that Emergency. Typically, such rejections from the FDA come with a suggestion to … Read more

FDA Releases Multiple Guidance Documents Specific to Cancer Clinical Trials 

As promised, FDA released three new guidance documents specifically intended to help cancer drug development. These guidance documents cover common areas of concern in cancer clinical trials such as inclusion of older patients, concurrent recruitment of multiple cohorts to test the drug in multiple presentations of cancer in the same trial, and master protocols. These … Read more

Is There is a Bi-Partisan Push for FDA To Regulate LDTs?  

A group of Republican Congressmen wrote to FDA last month raising concerns about LDTs for prenatal genetic testing and as expected, FDA wrote back asking them to pass laws to regulate LDTs. FDA’s answer is a repeat of what it has said for the last decade or more, that it wants to regulate these diagnostic … Read more

Is Digital Medicine Bust? Lessons from Akili

The first company to get FDA approval for an app with medical claims, Akili, had miserable sales of only $377,000 over almost a year with its product. The company’s projection of $500M+ revenue per year seems outlandish in the face of that. Whether it is a financial success or a bust, Akili could become the … Read more