Medical Device Regulations & Compliance

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVES

A Look At Elsa, The FDA's New AI Digital Assistant

The U.S. FDA recently launched its very own generative AI tool called Elsa. It's designed to assist FDA employees across various functions, from scientific reviewers to investigators.

Bracing For The Impact Of The Federal Workforce Reduction

The federal workforce reductions pose significant challenges for the life sciences industry, particularly for R&D, supply chain oversight, and industry workforce development.

AI In Medical Devices: Meeting The Regulatory Challenge Around The World, Part 2

This article focuses on the common regulatory threads that connect different regions and the global standards and principles being developed to bring consistency, safety, and trust to AI innovation in medical devices.

AI In Medical Devices: Meeting The Regulatory Challenge Around The World, Part 1

This article explores the global regulatory landscape, examining how leading authorities in the U.S., EU, U.K., Canada, China, Brazil, Australia, and South Korea are approaching AI in medical devices. 

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WHITE PAPERS & CASE STUDIES

  • Human brain with dna and virus-GettyImages-1622392069
    The 5 Ws Of A Human Factors Strategy

    A human factors strategy ensures medical products are safe, effective, and compliant by integrating user-focused design early, reducing risks, and optimizing regulatory approval processes.

Selecting The Best Deterministic Method For Your CCIT Project

Container Closure Integrity Testing (CCIT) ensures drug sterility, evolving with regulatory updates like USP <1207>. Deterministic methods are preferred over probabilistic ones to maintain product integrity.

Ophthalmic Delivery Systems: Drug And Device Testing For Regulatory And Patient Compliance

Explore ophthalmic drug and device testing, focusing on regulatory and patient compliance, including design considerations, testing methodologies, safety, and efficacy for medical device development.

Meeting Annex 1: A Proactive Approach To Regulatory Compliance

It was imperative for a large European CMO that produces multiple biologic drugs to select the right product quality and value for each customer to comply with the August 2023 revision to the EU GMP Annex 1.

Sustainable Solutions For Medical Devices

Explore how medical device companies aim to balance patient safety with environmental stability by offering bio-based UHMWPE, which reduces carbon footprints by up to 70%.

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ABOUT MEDICAL DEVICE REGULATIONS & COMPLIANCE

Medical devices, from ideation to post-launch assessment, are regulated in the United States by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Medical Device Regulation Act of 1976 and subsequent amendments to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1938.

The FDA’s medical device regulatory pathways — for premarket review, clearance, and approval — are based on three classifications, indicating the degree of regulatory control necessary to ensure a device’s safety and effectiveness. Class I devices are considered low-risk, and many are exempt from the regulatory process. Class II devices require special controls for “labeling, guidance, tracking, design, performance standards, and postmarket monitoring,” and most require premarket notification 510(k) to demonstrate substantial equivalence (having the same intended use and technological characteristics) to a legally marketed device. Class III devices usually sustain or support life, are implanted, or present a significant risk of illness or injury. Most class III devices require premarket approval (PMA), which examines a variety of factors in weighing the probable health benefits from intended use of a device versus the probable risks.

Medical device makers must adhere to Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) regulations, which FDA inspectors use to determine if a manufacturer has the facilities, skills, and equipment to produce and pack its product. In addition, the FDA requires all medical devices to carry a unique device identifier (UDI), readable by both machines and humans, to “improve patient safety, modernize device postmarket surveillance, and facilitate medical device innovation.”

Medical device makers competing in international markets must monitor and adhere to the policies of foreign regulatory bodies, which can vary greatly, depending on the nation. Further, many global regulators require manufacturers to be certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). ISO 13485 compliance, confirmed through third-party (Notified Body) audits, demonstrates a medical device manufacturer’s procedures and products meet or exceed international quality standards.

Efforts are also underway to standardize international regulations to ensure the safety, effectiveness, and quality of medical devices. The International Medical Device Regulators Forum (IMDRF) — composed of regulatory agencies from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, Japan, Russia, and the United States — is building upon previous work by the Global Harmonization Task Force on Medical Devices (GHTF) to speed this harmonization and convergence.

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