Originally intended to increase medical device safety, the implementation of the EU’s medtech regulation was so hampered in 2022 that it had started to look as if the new regulations were a bigger potential threat to patients than any of the scandals leading to its more stringent requirements. With the European Commission’s latest plans to ease challenges around implementation, will 2023 be a more positive year for the EU medtech sector?

President Biden and Congress are pressuring the agencies to change patent policies so brand manufacturers cannot delay generic and biosimilar competition to keep monopoly prices. Timeline shows how they have responded to these demands.

Despite major differences in the sponsors, drugs and circumstances, the outcomes from the hearings on Makena’s continued availability and Avastin’s breast cancer indication were strikingly similar, with overwhelming votes in favor of withdrawal. In the process, however, both sponsors gained extra commercial time for their products.

Key Republican committee chairs on health issues are familiar faces, largely supportive of the US FDA’s approach to drug regulation. Implementation of the new pricing law, however, will get a lot more scrutiny.