Last Monday, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (the “District Court”) issued a highly anticipated – and unsurprising – opinion invalidating the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (“FDA’s” or the “Agency’s”) controversial rule that ended its longstanding policy of enforcement discretion for laboratory-developed tests, or “LDTs,” purporting to regulate them as “devices” under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act (the “FDCA”) (the “LDT Rule” or the “Rule”). While this is a clear win for companies in the diagnostic and lab services space, we are now left wondering – is there any path forward for the LDT Rule? It’s not looking too likely but, these days, anything could happen.Continue Reading LDT Final Rule Series: Part 4 – Rule Overturned by Federal District Court

In this second installment of our nine-part deep-dive into the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (“FDA” or “the Agency”) final rule on Laboratory Developed Tests (“LDTs”) – which established a staged plan that will phase out the Agency’s previous policy of enforcement discretion for LDTs – we are taking a closer look at the response to the rule, not only from laboratories and other industry stakeholders but also from members of the legislature. The long and short of it is – people are not happy!Continue Reading LDT Final Rule Series: Part 2 – Response to the Rule

In an April 4, 2019 Press Release, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced its issuance of a Warning Letter to Inova Genomics Laboratory (Inova) in Virginia for marketing genetic tests for predicting medication response and patient receptivity to drugs (among other things). FDA identified three genetic tests, including one called “MediMap Plus,” which was designed to provide insight into how a patient would respond to drugs used for anesthesia, cancers, infections, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, depression, anxiety, and diabetes. FDA deemed the tests to be adulterated and misbranded because Inova had not sought premarket clearance.
Continue Reading FDA Issues Warning Letter to Lab Marketing Three Laboratory-Developed Tests