FDA's Medical Device Clinical Trials Program

Anna Longwell
Instructor:
Anna Longwell
Duration:
60 Minutes
Product Id:
500681
Access:
6 months

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Price Details
$190 Recorded
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Overview:

The topic is device clinical trials. This term refers to the use of medical products on/in humans, in order to gain useful knowledge about the product. Such knowledge might be required to enable the development of user instructions, better understanding of limitations, evidence of clinical usefulness, or elements of product design that require additional changes.

These trials are very expensive in outlay, personnel time and elapsed time. FDA regulations are designed to ensure that trials conducted in the US are performed with a number of safeguards, not only for the patient undergoing the trial, but for the sponsor of the trial, to ensure that sufficient thought has been given to protocol development, patient safety, definition of endpoints, data analysis, and data integrity .

This lecture will go over how the IDE regulations work, how they integrate with the design control requirements in 820.30, pre-market, and how post market clinical trials can be conducted with no conflict between trial data vs record-keeping and reporting requirements of commercial device establishments.

Why should you Attend: In spite of the long experience device companies have with clinical trials regulations (published 25 years ago), many companies have found this area an expensive trap. In fact, the only thing more expensive than a good clinical trial is a bad clinical trial. The probability of a successful trial is a function of the thought and experience that goes into a trial design. The thought, organization, compliance and analysis can be assisted by outside consultancies, such as CROs, but the experience has to be internal, a deep knowledge of the particular device, how it works, what its limitations are, what the company wants it to do, and the likelihood of its performing as desired.

There is an old engineering axiom, "if it works, it must be obsolete." For pivotal clinical trials, the product MUST WORK, and convincing development teams to settle down and define a trial-ready model is one of the most critical tasks in the whole product development cycle. Unrealistic estimation of the time required to describe and develop the trial-ready device has caused the downfall of some device start-ups. However forcing a pivotal trial of a poorly characterized device to satisfy an unrealistic timeline is a very expensive lottery ticket, with about the same probability of success as the cheap ones you buy at the gas station. Unfortunately, since FDASIA (2012) you will not be able to depend on approval of your investigational device exemption (IDE) to rescue you from a poorly-designed trial, since FDA is no longer legally able to reject a request for an IDE simply because they do not believe the trial will support a claim of safety and/or effectiveness in a subsequent marketing submission. Only proactive companies, requesting pre-submission discussions, will be informed of flaws in their design that make it unusable to show device safety and/or effectiveness. Also, once the product is approved or cleared, there may be post-marketing studies, some of which may be under IDE (new indication), and some of which may be marketing studies (no change in cleared/approved labeling studied) which are exempt from IDE requirement.

You will then be faced with questions like: "Do I label the product going to a marketing study "investigational"?, and "Does the IDE study have to report under 803 and 806, or is it still under IDE regulation for reporting adverse events, or both?"

Areas Covered in the Session:

  • Introduction
  • Valid scientific evidence
  • Phases of device human studies
  • Significant/non-significant risk
  • IDE meaning, content, review
  • Exemption from IDE rules
  • Labeling/charging for product
  • QSR design control integration
  • Expanded access
  • Post marketing studies

Who Will Benefit:
  • R&D and Regulatory Staff
  • Management of R&D Regulatory


Speaker Profile
Anna Longwellis currently principal attorney of the Palo Alto Law firm, Longwell and Associates, which specializes in Food and Drug law. The firm has expertise in US FDA expectations, regulation and law, affecting the development and ultimate marketing of new medical products, drugs, devices and biologics.

They have served the regulatory needs of large (>$2 billion/year) divisions of Fortune 500 companies, and small (4 person) biotech start-ups. Prior to establishing the firm, Ms. Longwell was VP of Regulatory affairs for Becton Dickinson, Medical a > $2 billion/annum unit of BD engaged in global manufacture and sale of medical devices, consumer products and OTC drugs. In that context, she participated as regulatory expert in many pre-acquisition due diligence teams.

Prior work experience included a division of BD investigating monoclonal antibodies as therapy, and Alza Corporation during the period when they pioneered combination products. She has been a visiting lecturer in food and drug law at the University of Santa Clara school of law, a visiting lecturer in food law at the Institute of Agribusiness, University of Santa Clara School of Business, a visiting lecturer in regulatory topics at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, and the UC Santa Cruz Extension (UCSC), and an instructor for the Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI) internship program at Catholic University, Washington DC.

Currently, she is co-teaching a class in US Medical Device Regulation, winter quarters at UCSC. Ms. Longwell has coauthored a book chapter titled "Due Diligence Points to Consider" in the "Expert's Guide to Healthcare Product Due Diligence" published by FDLI.

Ms. Longwell holds a bachelor's degree in Chemistry from San Francisco College for Women (now USF), a Master's degree in Physical Science from Stanford University, and a JD and MBA from The University of Santa Clara School of Law and School of Business, respectively. She is a current member of the California Bar (#166040) and the US Patent bar (#50629).


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