• where experts go to learn about FDA
  • Jeffrey N. Gibbs

    • OMB Completes its Review of the Final LDT Rule—A Final Rule Coming Anytime NowApril 25th, 2024

      We’ve been hearing for quite some time that a Final LDT Rule would likely be coming this spring, before May 1.  This timing has been attributed to FDA’s desire to avoid having the rule being overturned by Congress under the Congressional Review Act.  Of course, …

    • Congressional Hearing on LDTs: Split on FDA Regulation but Support for VALIDApril 1st, 2024

      On March 21, 2024, the House Energy and Commerce held a subcommittee hearing titled “Evaluating Approaches to Diagnostic Test Regulation and the Impact of the FDA’s Proposed Rule.” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Subcommittee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-KY), in announcing …

    • FDA Grants A Registration Fee Waiver for Very Small, Broke Device ManufacturersMarch 8th, 2024

      Our last post on small business certification requests described how small medical device manufacturers, defined as those with gross receipts of less than $100 million in gross receipts and sales for the most recent tax year, are eligible for a reduced fee on those medical …

    • One Step Closer to Final: The LDT Rule Arrives at OMB, Making A Lawsuit More LikelyMarch 4th, 2024

      FDA’s proposed rule to regulate laboratory developed tests (LDTs) as devices took one more step towards publication as a final rule – and to a likely judicial showdown.  On March 1, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) received the draft final LDT rule for …

    • Outlining the Legal Arguments Against FDA’s Proposed Rule Regulating LDTsJanuary 29th, 2024

      In a new publication in the Washington Legal Foundation’s (WLF) Legal Backgrounder, we argue that FDA’s recent proposed rule regulating Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs) is vulnerable to legal challenge, once finalized. FDA’s proposed rule has every hallmark of a case subject to the “major questions …

    • HP&M Files Comments Opposing FDA’s Proposed LDT RuleDecember 7th, 2023

      On Monday, Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, P.C. filed comments on behalf of the Coalition to Preserve LDT Access and Innovation in response to FDA’s proposed rule to regulate laboratory developed tests (LDTs) as devices.  Weighing in at nearly 60 pages, the comments detail extensive flaws …

    • FDA Stealthily Convenes Multi-Cancer Testing Panel MeetingNovember 28th, 2023

      Shortly before the Thanksgiving holiday, FDA announced with no fanfare that it would be holding a Molecular and Clinical Genetics Panel meeting this Wednesday November 29.  The notice (here) indicates that FDA plans for the panel to “discuss and make recommendations on the design of …

    • Do You Hear What I Hear? One Year of OTC Hearing AidsNovember 8th, 2023

      The first anniversary is always special.  Janus-like, it offers the opportunity to simultaneously reflect on hitting a milestone and projecting the future.  The first anniversary can also prompt a taking of stock: how well did the first year go? Recently, the over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid rule, …

    • A Question 30 Years in the Making: Would a Final LDT Rule Withstand Judicial Scrutiny?November 2nd, 2023

      For more than three decades, FDA has claimed that the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) gives the agency legal authority to regulate laboratory developed tests (LDTs) as medical devices (see our prior post here).  In this post, we summarize the purported basis …

    • Out At Home: FDA’s Vocal Support of Home Testing but Reluctance to Clear Novel OTC Home TestsJune 23rd, 2023

      FDA has been clearing over-the-counter (OTC) in vitro diagnostic (IVD) tests nearly since the beginning of its premarket regulation of devices.  The first OTC IVD cleared by FDA was a qualitative dipstick urine glucose test in 1977, followed shortly thereafter by the first OTC pregnancy …

    • FDA’s Summer Plans May Include LDT RulemakingJune 20th, 2023

      The long-running saga of FDA regulation of laboratory-developed tests (LDTs) has taken yet another new turn.  In the most recent Unified Agenda, which is a list of planned regulatory actions published semi-annually by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), FDA announced its intent to …

    • Doctoring the Law: Congress May Let FDA Regulate the Practice of MedicineDecember 22nd, 2022

      Back in June, when Congress was negotiating the User Fee Acts, FDA asked Congress to add in some provisions reversing several lawsuits that it had just lost.  Ultimately, FDA lost that fight, and a slimmed down version of the FDA Safety and Landmark Advancements (“FDASLA”) …

    • Remote Patient Testing Faces a Cloudy Future under VALIDDecember 14th, 2022

      It is widely expected that the fate of the VALID Act – and therefore the world of diagnostic regulation – will be determined in the next two weeks (see our previous post here).  While the potential mitigating impact of the “grandfathering” clause on laboratories currently …

    • FDA Safety Communications: A Potential Provider PitfallSeptember 28th, 2022

      The New Jersey Supreme Court, in its August 25, 2022 opinion in Mirian Rivera v. Valley Hospital, Inc., 2022 N.J. LEXIS 679 (NJ Aug. 25, 2022), https://www.njcourts.gov/attorneys/assets/opinions/supreme/a_25_26_27_21.pdf?c=lmL, considered whether a provider’s use of a medical device that is the subject of an FDA safety communication …

    • It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want to: A Bittersweet Happy 30th Birthday to LDTsAugust 3rd, 2022

      Happy Birthday Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs). Thirty years ago today, FDA announced that it had the authority to regulate you.  Not yet understanding how important you’d become, you entered the regulatory world without a name – the Agency simply referred to you as “home brew” products.  …