What are the U.S. FDA's recently expanded, less traditional / modified pathways for novel technologies or safer products to receive clearand or approval.

Description

This webinar will consider the steps the FDA has been taken to provide different and more efficiant pathways for novel or safer technologies to receive FDA clearance or approval, e.g., the Medical Device Safety Action Plan, and recent updates to modernize and enhance the 510(k) and De Novo review processes.

In addition the Agency has further announced two additional device programs: 1) Finalizing guidance on the existing Breakthrough Device Program; and 2) Plans for a new Safer Technologies Program (STeP). Each addresses one of the two existing pathways, 510(k) and PMA, to address what the FDA calls "breakthrough technologies" using less restrictive submission requirements / pathways. Such approaches require a rethinking of submission strategies on the part of industry, to benefit from the FDA's changed thinking.

Why Should You Attend:

Over the past few years, the FDA has been developing new approaches to modernize FDA’s 510(k) clearance pathway, used for low- to moderate-risk devices that are substantially equivalent (SE) to a device already on the market, known as a predicate device. These changes include new pathways for these devices that the FDA has laid out and discussed in their Medical Device Safety Action Plan, issued April 16, 2018. The 510(k) pathway is used for the majority of devices that the FDA reviews.

Manufacturers often rely on comparative testing to predicate devices to demonstrate that a new device is substantially equivalent to the predicate. These new pathways expand the leeway for SE matches / comparisons, to allow for the clearance of "breakthrough technologies" or safer devices that pose reduced risks to the users, without having to go the De Novo or PMA submission route.