Legal & IP

The College of American Pathologists wants a US district court to scrap the FDA’s final rule that unilaterally assumes oversight of lab-developed tests, but not because the college feels the agency has no business regulating them. Helena Duncan, senior director of quality at CAP, explained the college’s position to Medtech Insight.

The owner of a Chicago COVID-19 testing lab plead guilty to wire fraud for billing the government for COVID-19 tests that were not performed. Also, test developer Talis Biomedical agreed to pay $32.5m to settle a shareholder suit.

This week, the FDA announced a new head of its device evaluation office; synthetic genomics firm Constructive Bio landed $58m in funding; and Natera got a permanent injuction against NeoGenomics Labs' RaDaR assay.

J&J’s “pants down” moment with Auris could permanently change how medtech M&A is conducted. Build-to-buy arrangements, which leave companies’ destinies in the hands of their owners, are likely to replace current earn-out models.

In a letter to US lawmakers, the Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine says the FDA’s final rule regulating lab-developed tests will stifle innovation and that Congress needs to step in and stop it.

Clue Plus members will have access to 50% off a Headspace subscription for tailored guidance, support and validation to help manage cycle-related stress and improve overall well-being.

With the reversal of the Chevron doctrine in June, lower courts will now have more say in deciding regulatory statutes when the language is murky. But will that open the door to more legal challenges from the healthcare industry against government regulations it finds unfavorable? A pair of legal experts recently discussed the potential implications of the Court’s decision.

This week, a Delaware court awarded Auris Health shareholders $1bn in a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson; Abbott recalled some FreeStyle Libre 3 sensors; and McKesson purchased a controlling interest in a Florida cancer care chain.

Former FDA device center head Jeffrey Shuren is facing conflict of interest claims for not recusing himself from regulatory decisions involving clients of his wife’s legal firm. Critics call for an investigation and stricter ethics compliance.

The US government continued its focus on False Claims Act enforcement and collected funds totaling more than $1bn in the first of this year alone – $155m of which was medtech-related. 

Philips has filed a lawsuit against a Pennsylvania lab it hired to analyze sound abatement foam that prompted widespread recalls of its CPAP machines. Philips alleges PSN Labs grossly overestimated the risk to patients, which led Philips to initiate a larger recall than it otherwise would have.

In June, the US Supreme Court reversed the Chevron doctrine, a long-standing precedent requiring courts to defer to regulatory agencies when statutory language was ambiguous. But will that decision prevent the FDA’s final rule on laboratory developed tests from taking effect? A legal expert weighs in.

A New York district court ordered the asset freeze after finding that the owners of H&H Wholesale Services had concealed or gambled away money owed to Abbott. The company was ordered to pay Abbott $33m in 2023 for distributing test strips authorized for sale only outside the US.

This week, Nipro Medical Corp. announced it will invest $397.8m to build a US-based production plant, generating 232 new jobs; both Baxter and Hamilton announced ventilator recalls; Imperative Care wins FDA clearance for its stroke catheter; Intelligent Ultrasound Group plc entered into a conditional sale and purchase deal to sell its Clinical AI business to GE HealthCare for £40.5m; RMI distributed 350m rapid test kits in the fight against HIV/AIDS; Jiangsu Shenli Medical Production Co., Ltd received a second FDA warning letter about quality and safety of plastic syringes.

A letter from Suzanne Schwartz affirms that the FDA approves the extension of a copyright-law exemption that lets third parties access software in medical devices for repair or maintenance, but not for modifications that could affect device safety.

Firms can be more forceful in disputes with FDA now that Supreme Court has eliminated Chevron deference. Questions around whether an evidentiary standard has been met may be ripe for challenge, legal experts said, but they also caution that sponsors will face more uncertainty.

US Customs and Border Protection ruled that Apple’s ECG technology doesn’t infringe on AliveCor’s patent and doesn’t have to comply with a previous import ban.

This week, Roche filed suit against Foresight Diagnostics and Stanford University over patent infringement; the former head of a COVID-19 test company was convicted of securities fraud; and Baxter announced a recall of Life2000 ventilators.

The US Federal Trade Commission wants to clean up the FDA’s Orange Book by purging medical device patents that the commission says should not be in the listing. The FTC argues improper patents in the Orange Book block lower-cost generic equivalents from coming to market. Medtech Insight spoke to attorney Sara Koblitz about the FTC’s delisting push.

A Friday Supreme Court ruling could create uncertainty for the medtech industry by giving judges more latitude to overrule executive-branch decisions. While some pro-business groups applauded the decision, others saw risks as well as benefits.