Lawmakers from the North Star State are falling in line to oppose one of the key findings of the Institute of Medicine’s recent report on the FDA’s 510(k) premarket notification.
Sens Amy Kloubechar (D-Minn.), Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn) issued a joint statement saying that they rejected the IOM’s finding that the FDA should scrap the 510(k) program altogether and start anew.
The 22-month, independent IOM review, commissioned in 2009 by the FDA’s Center for Devices & Radiological Health and released last week, is not binding on the agency but is sure to cause a stir in med-tech circles and draw the attention of members of Congress.
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MassDevice Staff Website The Massachusetts Medical Devices Journal is the online journal of the medical devices industry in the Commonwealth and New England, providing day-to-day coverage of the devices that save lives, the people behind them, and the burgeoning trends and developments within the industry.
“I believe we need targeted reforms to the 510(k) process to ensure that our companies in the medical device industry can continue to create jobs, develop innovative products, and maintain patient safety,” Kloubechar said in a prepared release. “Scrapping the 510(k) process entirely isn’t what our businesses want and could limit access to life-saving products.”
Kloubechar’s Senatorial counterpart Al Franken added that “calling for the elimination of the 510(k) process could be very harmful to innovation. The report’s recommendations would impose new burdens on the medical device industry, without a clear path to a more effective process. And in the meantime, it would leave Minnesota companies with great uncertainty, and patients without new lifesaving devices.”
Both Franken and Kloubechar have been active voices in the senate supporting the device industry, along with Rep. Erik Paulsen, who heads the Medical Technology Caucus in the House of Representatives. He called the IOM report’s recommendation to scrap the program a “step in the wrong direction.”
“The medical technology industry is already facing unprecedented challenges – a job-stifling innovation tax and an increasingly out-of-touch FDA – and eliminating the 510(k) process would give Europe another leg up in competing for these made-in-America technologies,” Paulsen said. “What the medical devices manufacturers need is consistency in the approval process, not more uncertainty. Instead of replacing 510(k), I intend to work with innovators, physicians, and other stakeholders to streamline the device clearance process at the FDA.”
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Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) told MassDevice via email that he was “reviewing the IOM recommendations in the context of MDUFMA reauthorization, with a critical eye on how these recommendations could further add to the uncertainty in the FDA regulatory process for the medical device industry.”
“I will continue to closely follow and monitor these discussions, and listen to the device industry in Massachusetts about the proposed changes to the 510k process,” Brown wrote.
The Massachusetts Medical Devices Journal is the online journal of the medical devices industry in the Commonwealth and New England, providing day-to-day coverage of the devices that save lives, the people behind them, and the burgeoning trends and developments within the industry.
