Health Law Scan

In our latest Fast Break session and on the heels of recent announcements from the Biden-Harris administration and the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) granting of full authorization for the Pfizer vaccine in August, we were joined by Dan Kadish, a Morgan Lewis labor and employment associate and one of the leaders of our Morgan Lewis COVID-19 vaccine task force, to discuss how these updates may impact employers in the healthcare industry.

We invite Health Law Scan readers to join Morgan Lewis for the 11th Technology May-rathon, our annual series of tailored webinars focused on current technology issues, trends, and developments that are of key importance to our friends and clients.

Our US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) team recently published a blog post discussing the FDA’s issuance of its first clinicaltrials.gov notice of noncompliance to a clinical trial sponsor for failure to submit clinical trial results to the National Institutes of Health databank. While the authority to issue such notices has existed since the 2007 passage of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act, this is the first time the FDA has exercised its clinicaltrials.gov enforcement authority.

Our FDA team recently published an Insight covering key considerations for artificial intelligence (AI) healthcare application developers and users, highlighting the FDA’s current regulatory scheme for AI/machine learning (ML)-based software, potential FDA enforcement discretion that may apply, and recent FDA developments impacting AI/ML technologies.

Members of our vaccine taskforce recently published an important Insight outlining a selection of key legal considerations and updates as the COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues to take shape, including the status of the US Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine products, distribution, key legal issues at the state level, employer mandates and employee incentives, and important liability concerns.

Morgan Lewis has recently launched a new resource for our clients and friends, Questions on Vaccines, to help navigate as the US accelerates its goal of delivering safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, employers, healthcare providers, and many others are considering the potential implications for their industries and organizations.

Our FDA and digital health teams recently published a LawFlash on how a Biden administration will affect the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) oversight and regulation of medical devices and digital health.

Our FDA team published a LawFlash on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) recent Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) for the first over-the-counter (OTC) COVID-19 test to be performed at home and the first OTC home sample collection kit for COVID-19 testing, as well as additional prescription at-home tests and sample collection kits.

HHS recently announced the forthcoming termination of FDA’s Unapproved Drugs Initiative (UDI), in an apparent effort to combat prescription drug shortages and price spikes.

Healthcare systems have been on the front lines of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and may have several questions about how to manage workforce challenges as we look toward the upcoming months.