Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration announced that new data elements will be available on AccessGUDID, in the download files and in the APIs, as of April 2. Data for FDA Premarket Submission Number and FDA Premarket Supplement Number will not be provided until this summer. The FDA is…
Author's Note The Food & Drug Administration on March 23 announced the Class I recall of Becton Dickinson (BD) Vacutainer® EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) blood collection tubes with lavender, tan, pink, and green rubber tube stoppers. Class I recalls are the most serious. The recall was initiated because of a chemical…
Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on March 12 issued a Safety Alert on the potential for increased artifact associated with magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) imaging for follow-up of certain post neurovascular embolization coil procedures. When MRA is performed on patients implanted with neurovascular embolization coils containing 304V…
Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on March 9 issued warning letters to all three duodenoscope manufacturers for failing to comply with federal requirements to conduct postmarket surveillance studies to assess the effectiveness of reprocessing their devices. Olympus failed to start data collection, and Pentax and Fujifilm failed…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 6 announced the recall by Sagent Pharmaceuticals (Schaumburg, Illinois) of 10 lots of methylprednisolone sodium succinate for injection, USP, 40 mg, 125 mg, and 1 g. The recall was initiated because of the discovery of high out of specification impurity…
Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on March 5 announced the recall by Hospira (Lake Forest, Illinois) of three lots of hydromorphone HCL injection, USP Cll 10 mg/mL, 1 mL in 2 mL single dose vials. The recall was initiated because units from these lots may be empty…
Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on March 2 issued a warning for healthcare professionals not to use drug products produced by Cantrell Drug Company (Little Rock, Arkansas), including opioids and other drugs intended for sterile injections. The FDA is concerned about serious deficiencies in Cantrell’s compounding operations,…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on February 22 issued a Safety Alert for clarithromycin (Biaxin) because of the potential increased risk of heart problems or death associated with this antibiotic in patients with heart disease. A large clinical trial with 10-year follow-up found an unexpected increase in…
Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), American Society for Microbiology, along with other experts on February 26 released voluntary standardized protocols for duodenoscope surveillance sampling and culturing, which update a 2015 CDC interim protocol. For facilities that choose to implement duodenoscope surveillance…
Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on February 27 classified the recall by Medtronic of certain Implantable Cardiovert Defibrillators (ICDs) and Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Defibrillators (CRT-Ds) as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of a defect in the manufacturing process. The defect causes an…