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On April 30th, 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning letter and Form FDA 483 to the sponsor of a clinical investigation as the result of a Bioresearch Monitoring Program (BIMO) inspection. 40 participants were enrolled in the study and took the investigational product that the sponsor claims was to help individuals with sleeping disorders without submitting an Investigational New Drug (IND) application.
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On January 31st, 2025, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) reached another major milestone for the implementation of the Clinical Trials Regulation (CTR), the European Union’s (EU) current pharmaceutical legislation. The CTR has updated the many of the CTD policies; promoting communication between trials and regulators, increased transparency between trials and the public, and reducing financial and administrative burdens.
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On April 4th, 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated their Institutional Review Board (IRB) Guidance Manual, part of the Bioresearch Monitoring (BIMO) Compliance Program. Staying up to date with these sorts of regulatory updates will help better prepare for inspections and give IRBs a chance to update any relevant protocols or policies that may not be compliant with these new changes.
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On June 17th, 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) introduced its Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher (CNVP) pilot program to accelerate development of select drugs or biologics from companies that are supporting U.S. national interests and are aligned with U.S. national health priorities.
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On June 4, 2025 the European Medicines Agency (EMA) posted a guideline titled: ICH E21 Guideline on inclusion of pregnant and breastfeeding individuals in clinical trials. Individuals who are pregnant or breastfeeding make up a significant portion of the world’s population, however, the European Union (EU) reports that less than 0.4% of clinical trials currently submitted to the EU include pregnant people and only 0.1% include lactating individuals. This guideline highlights the importance of including these individuals as well as the steps that should be taken in order to ensure their safety during a trial.
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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a press release confirming that the FDA and medical device industry stakeholders reached an agreement on proposed recommendations for the fifth reauthorization of the Medical Device User Fee Amendments of 2023 (MDUFA V). The first authorized user fee for medical device occurred with the Medical Device User Fee and Modernization Act (MDUFMA) of 2002, which amended the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act).
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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a final guidance, “Principles of Premarket Pathways for Combination Products” in January 2022. Section 3038 of the 21st Century Cures Act amended the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) regarding combination products. This included requirements for consistent premarket regulatory expectations and aligned premarket review for combination products. The guidance describes principles for premarket review of combination products in line with the amendments implemented by the Cures Act.
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In a recent investigator warning letter issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an investigator was cited for failing to ensure an Institutional Review Board (IRB) that complies with the applicable regulatory requirements in 21 CFR 56 was overseeing their clinical trial. During the time where IRB approval for the protocol lapsed, the site continued to enroll and administer investigational products to study participants under that protocol. The investigator’s response to the FDA was inadequate because they explained that they did not need to report any adverse events during that timeframe.
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a guidance “Principles for Selecting, Developing, Modifying and Adapting Patient-Reported Outcome Instruments for Use in Medical Device Clinical Evaluation” in January 2022. This and a related guidance, “Patient-Reported Outcome Measures: Use in Medical Product Development to Support Labeling Claims” from December 2009 are part of an initiative by the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) to incorporate the use of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in evaluating medical devices. The guidance does not replace the Patient-Focused Drug Development (PFDD) guidance series.
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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a final guidance “Patient-Focused Drug Development: Methods to Identify What Is Important to Patients” in February 2022. This is second in a series of guidance related to a patient centered approach to drug development. The first guidance in the series, “Patient-Focused Drug Development: Collecting Comprehensive and Representative Input”, was finalized June 2020. These guidance documents are aligned with the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act) of 2016 requirement for patient-focused drug development (PFDD). The guidance documents clarify how patient experience data collected from patients can best be used for drug development and regulatory applications. The June 2020 guidance discusses best practices for the methods of data collection that ensure accurate and representative experience data and goes further into patient experience data, which includes their experiences, perspectives, needs, and priorities.
