iwewlkws Pharmacies located within hospitals are not required to register with the FDA as “Outsourcing Facilities” and are exempt from following GMP. However, there are strict conditions for the compounding operations performed at such hospital pharmacies some of which needed clarification and relaxation. This week, FDA did just that by relaxing the rules ever so slightly … Read more
When FDA, industry, or any other stakeholder (collectively called the “messengers”) become aware of any cybersecurity vulnerabilities in a medical device connected to the internet, they must inform the patients and caregivers (collectively called the “users”) in an easy to find, read and understand communication on the internet, social media, or television. This is explained … Read more
This week FDA published the final rule for the De Novo classification request for novel medical devices keeping the process mostly same as the previous rule. The process still requires that the applicant submit a detailed De Novo Class I or II designation request after the 510k application has been rejected or no predicate exists, … Read more
A new draft FDA guidance released this week describes all the factors that govern FDA’s decisions about market approval of new drugs and biologics, and it is apparent that the benefit-risk assessment of new products is far from black and white, but various shades of gray. The guidance appears more like an opinion article than … Read more
The 510k applications are one of the very few regulatory applications that are still submitted as fully or partially paper documents that must be mailed to the FDA offices rather than uploaded to the Electronic Submission Gateway (ESG). This week FDA released a guidance describing its process to transition to electronic 510k applications. The process … Read more
An old ethical question about should a sponsor pay or not pay subjects for participating in their clinical trials was investigated in two clinical trials, one with high risk to subjects and another with low risk to subjects. It was found that for the study where subjects would have low risk to participate, the financial … Read more
In almost 2 out of 5 cases where the efficacy data submitted in support of a market approval application was borderline (i.e., not clearly conclusive), FDA used its discretion to approve products, citing no clear public reasoning for its decision. Many times, it was done differently than FDA’s own previous decisions about similar applications. The … Read more
Biodistribution studies are needed for gene therapy products usually early on for better interpretation of the pharmacological and toxicological effects of the product, but these can be conducted under non-GLP conditions and use animal tissues specimens combined over multiple non-clinical studies. The new ICH guidance endorsed by the FDA this week provides several commonsense measures … Read more
FDA reversed its decision regarding the inadequacy of a small Phase 2 trial for the approval of a new drug for ALS under pressure from patient groups setting up yet another precedence for other similar developers of drugs for rare diseases with questionable data. Accepting this market approval application will set FDA to being forced … Read more
In an updated guidance document on developing new anti-microbial agents for use in food products, FDA listed the various common questions from developers of such agents with detailed answers to meet regulatory expectations. Emphasis is placed to defining the minimum level of an agent necessary to accomplish the intended action. Anti-microbial agents are considered food … Read more
