The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a notice announcing the availability of a draft guidance document clarifying its acceptance of medical device clinical data from studies conducted in countries other than the United States. The document is intended to provide guidance regarding the 2012 Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act § 1123, amending Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act § 569B, which codified FDA's policy of accepting scientifically-valid clinical data obtained from non-U.S. clinical studies in support of premarket submissions for medical devices.… Continue Reading
FDA and CMS have announced that they are establishing an interagency task force to reinforce their collaboration regarding the oversight of laboratory-developed tests (LDTs) - tests intended for clinical use and designed, manufactured, and used within a single lab. According to an FDA blog post, the goals of the FDA/CMS task force include identifying areas of similarity between the FDA quality system regulation and requirements under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA); working together to clarify responsibilities for laboratories that fall under the purview of both agencies; and leveraging joint resources to avoid duplication and maximize efficiencies.… Continue Reading
CMS has issued an educational article on the FDA's approval of the first biosimilar product, and what implications this approval will have for Medicare coverage. CMS plans to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries will have access to this new product, as it does for other drugs that receive FDA approval. The CMS article addresses several questions that have arisen regarding biosimilars.… Continue Reading
Andrew Ceresney, enforcement director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), recently gave a presentation at CBI's Annual Pharmaceutical Compliance Congress in which he highlighted three current areas of SEC focus most relevant to the pharmaceutical industry: the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, corporate disclosures relating to interactions with the Food and Drug Administration, and financial internal controls.… Continue Reading
As mentioned on our Health Industry Washington Watch blog, the FDA will host a public workshop on April 1, 2015 to provide updates on the use of clinical outcome assessments (COAs), as well as to address plans for future development and use of COAs in drug development programs. The workshop, entitled “Clinical Outcomes Assessment Development … Continue Reading
FDA has issued a draft guidance providing recommendations for clinical investigators, sponsors and institutional review boards on the use of electronic informed consent for FDA-regulated clinical investigations of medical products, including drugs, medical devices and biological products. FDA is accepting comments on the draft guidance until May 8, 2015. In addition, the HHS Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) is considering whether to adopt the positions and recommendations proposed in this guidance for research regulated under the HHS protection of human subjects regulations and to issue a joint OHRP/FDA guidance document on this topic once the FDA's final guidance document has been developed.… Continue Reading
An article in Compliance Week discusses recent actions by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Food and Drug Administration concerning advertisement disclosures. The FTC launched Operation Full Disclosure in fall 2014, which involved sending warning letters to more than 60 companies across "a wide range of industries" for failing to properly disclose information in their advertisements. These letters serve as a reminder to all companies, even those that did not receive letters, to review their disclosures in order to minimize the likelihood of a violation in the future.… Continue Reading
FDA has released the Medical Device Postmarket Surveillance System Planning Board’s report, Strengthening Patient Care: Building an Effective National Medical Device Surveillance System, which outlines recommended steps toward achieving the National Medical Device Postmarket Surveillance System (MDS) and strategies for implementation. For more information, see http://blogs.fda.gov/fdavoice/index.php/2015/02/moving-toward-a-national-medical-device-postmarket-surveillance-system/.… Continue Reading
As mentioned on our Health Industry Washington Watch blog, committees in both the House of Representatives and Senate last week addressed the speed at which medical innovations are approved and available for patient use. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s “21st Century Cures Act” discussion draft, released on January 27, 2015, is a wide-reaching bill … Continue Reading
On December 16, 2014, President Obama signed into law an omnibus spending bill that will provide funding across the federal government in the remainder of FY 2015. The bill includes $5.4 billion designated for several regulatory agencies - including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Defense, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health and Department of State - to use in response to the Ebola epidemic, on both a national and international scale.… Continue Reading
The National Institutes of Health has released a proposed rule designed to provide clarity on the requirements surrounding the submission of information to ClinicalTrials.gov, as mandated by the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007. Among these requirements is the submission of summary results for clinical trials involving all pharmaceuticals, medical devices and biological products, regardless of whether they have been approved, licensed or cleared by the Food and Drug Administration. The rule also provides timetable restrictions for the registration of a clinical trial and submission of summary results, as well as guidelines for the reporting of adverse events.… Continue Reading
In light of the recent Ebola outbreak and concerns over health safety, members of the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee have introduced a bill that would add Ebola to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) priority review voucher program, which is designed as an incentive for developers of treatments and vaccines … Continue Reading
The February 2014 decision (discussed in an earlier blog post) in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit dismissed the False Claims Act (FCA) charges brought in United States ex rel. Rostholder v. Omnicare, Inc. was confirmed on October 6, 2014, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the Rostholder decision. … Continue Reading
The Drug & Device Law blog recently posted an analysis of an interesting case, United States ex rel. Solis v. Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., that takes an issue the government has fought in the past – off-label promotion – and attempts to provide a link between it and the false claims issues that relators bring under … Continue Reading
Earlier this week, the FDA issued two draft guidances on social media, and Reed Smith attorneys Colleen Davies, Celeste Letourneau, Kevin Madagan, and Jennifer Pike have written a client alert that analyzes them both in detail. The first guidance pertains to product claims and risk information on platforms like Twitter and sponsored links, and the second to correcting third party misinformation that appears in social media, such as in comments on a Facebook page or website.
A key date to keep in mind is that the deadline for comments is September 16, 2014.… Continue Reading
The social media phenomenon has radically transformed the ways in which commercial businesses promote their services and products. However, as a result, companies must consider potential legal risks from an entirely new angle. To become a successful user of social media, a company must draft, review, disseminate and enforce a social media policy that addresses potential legal issues while at the same time emphasizing positive exposure for the business.… Continue Reading
Drug and medical device manufacturers are often faced with difficult challenges in determining the country of origin for their products, which are often sourced, processed and manufactured in multiple countries. As detailed by the article "Origin of the Pieces: How to Determine a Pharmaceutical Product's 'Country of Origin,'" written by Reed Smith lawyers Jeffrey Orenstein and Lorraine Campos, there are a variety of factors that must be taken into consideration when answering the country of origin question for a pharmaceutical product - chief among which is who is asking the question. This article provides an overview of the principal regulatory schemes and their country of origin standards in order to help provide clarity to pharmaceutical companies in an often confusing and frustrating process.… Continue Reading
As mentioned on our Health Industry Washington Watch blog, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a plan intended to incentivize manufacturers to voluntarily update their prescription drug and biologics labels. The plan calls for the use of a government contractor to assist manufacturers in making these updates according to the labeling guidelines … Continue Reading
This post was written by Jillian W. Riley. Earlier this week, FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) published two separate draft guidance documents to advance the dual goals of FDA and industry to provide pathways for medical devices to reach the market quickly while ensuring the safety and efficacy of the product. The … Continue Reading
As mentioned on our Health Industry Washington Watch blog, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPO) are currently in the process of submitting detailed 2013 payment and investment interest data to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The submission of this data, as dictated by the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, is intended to highlight certain financial relationships between the manufacturers and GPOs and physicians. With some exceptions, this data will become public by September 1, 2014, at which time the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General, Department of Justice, and relators' attorneys will likely analyze the data to initiate investigations and support complaints under the federal False Claims Act.… Continue Reading
The FDA recently released draft guidance designed to accelerate the development and review process for drugs intended to treat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME), a condition for which there is currently no FDA-approved treatment. Though non-binding, the guidance should help drug manufacturers design and execute studies that are more likely to succeed in satisfying the FDA clearance requirements that there be "substantial evidence" of the efficacy of a product and an acceptable risk/benefit profile. The guidance will become finalized following the end of its notice/comment period on May 12, 2014.… Continue Reading
FDA's Office of Prescription Drug Promotion has warned a Swiss drug company about failing to include risk information and omitting material facts regarding its products. What makes these particular violations noteworthy is that they occurred on the company's Facebook page. FDA became aware of the company's Facebook promotion through its own monitoring and surveillance program.… Continue Reading
Reed Smith Partner Larry Sher authored a post on the Drug and Device Law Blog about a recent decision in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a False Claims Act (“FCA”) case brought against Omnicare, United States ex rel. Rostholder v. Omnicare, Inc., No. 12-2431, 2014 WL 661351 … Continue Reading
Today FDA has proposed updates to the Nutrition Facts label for foods. According to FDA, the goal of these proposed changes is not to dictate what consumers should or should not be eating, but rather to expand and highlight the information consumers need most to make well-informed choices regarding food. FDA will be accepting comments on the proposed updates for 90 days.… Continue Reading
