With the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) September 9, 2025 announcement that it will increase its enforcement of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act (FFDCA), its rules governing direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising, and the subsequent issuance of more than 100 “cease and desist” letters, the agency has demonstrated it believes that DTC marketing of prescription drugs may have gone too far and that it is committed to bringing the industry back into regulatory compliance.
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YOUR GO-TO SOURCE FOR ANALYSIS OF ISSUES AFFECTING THE PHARMA & BIOTECH SECTORS
The US Department of Justice’s settlement with Illumina, Inc. is a first-of-its-kind involving alleged cybersecurity deficiencies causing violations of the False Claims Act (FCA) based on FDA quality standards. The cybersecurity framework, typically seen in other industries such as defense contracting, serves as a warning to companies in the life sciences, medtech, and digital health space that DOJ and the whistleblower bar are expanding the scope of this flavor of FCA enforcement and should prepare accordingly.
Ariel Seeley served on the panel titled AI Trends in Medical Devices: Global Developments, FDA Policies, and Software as a Medical Device at the 2025 Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI) Annual Conference. The panel provided an overview of FDA’s approach to predetermined change control plans (PCCPs) and its draft guidance on pre-market submission requirements for AI-enabled devices, a summary of current trends in devices enabled with artificial intelligence (AI) or authorized with PCCPs, as well as the burgeoning global adoption of PCCPs.