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On January 6, 2025, the International Council of Harmonisation’s ICH E6(R3) for Good Clinical Practices (GCP) reached step four of the formal ICH procedure. This means that the ICH E6(R3) draft guidelines, since its release in May of 2023, were submitted to and approved by the ICH Regulatory Members of the ICH Assembly for adoption as an ICH Harmonised Guideline replacing E6(R2).
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On December 30, 2024, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released the draft guidance for industry titled “Protocol Deviations for Clinical Investigations of Drugs, Biological Products, and Devices” to help trial sponsors, investigators, and institutional review boards (IRB) define, identify, and report protocol deviations.
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The Health Research Authority (HRA) announced that England and Wales have begun implementing changes to their clinical trial regulations on June 1st, 2024. These changes include the removal of the requirement for trials to submit annual progress report to their Research Ethics Committee (REC) and the process of submitting safety reports. Scotland and Northern Ireland, following review, also implemented these changes to their regulations making the updates now applicable in all four of the UK nations as of August 1st, 2024.
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On November 6th, 2024, the International Council of Harmonization (ICH) published the draft version of ICH E6(R3) Annex 2, a long awaited update to the good clinical practice (GCP) section of the ICH Harmonized Guidelines.
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In October 2024, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a final guidance: “Electronic Systems, Electronic Records, and Electronic Signatures in Clinical Investigations: Questions and Answers”. It is intended for sponsors, principal investigators, institutional review boards (IRB), contracted research organizations (CRO) (all of which are considered regulated entities) and other interested clinical trial stakeholders that use electronic records and systems.
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“Q&A with FDA” is the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) podcast that began in 2022 which answers frequently asked questions by interviewing FDA staff members. The most recent episode was released on August 16th, 2024 titled “Real-World Data and Evidence Generation with Dr. Hilary Marston” hosted by Dr. Sara Roach interviewing Dr. Marston, the FDA’s Chief Medical Officer.
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A new draft guidance for industry was released on August 22, 2024 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Predetermined Change Control Plans (PCCP) for Medical Devices. The draft guidance provides an in-depth history of the origins of PCCPs and how the concept of device changes not requiring new 510(k) submissions has already made in an appearance in other FDA guidances.
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In August 2024, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a final guidance for industry on drug-drug interactions (DDI) with The International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) titled: M12 Drug Interaction Studies. The guidance is intended to set the global standard and framework for conducting and reporting DDI studies in order to improve the efficacy of drugs as well as the safety and predictability of potential interactions between different drugs.
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In an increasingly digital world, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is adapting its oversight mechanisms to include more technologically advanced approaches. One such adaptation is the use of Remote Regulatory Assessments (RRAs), a practice that has gained momentum, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2024, the FDA released a revised draft guidance titled Conducting Remote Regulatory Assessments–Question and Answers, outlining the role and purpose of RRAs and how they compare to traditional in-person inspections.
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On June 21, 2024, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent a warning letter to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) outlining several violations observed during a remote regulatory assessment (RRA) of MIT’s Institutional Review Board (IRB). The remote regulatory assessment was conducted as part of the FDA Bioresearch Monitoring Program (BIMO), which includes RRAs and inspections.
