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On 23 September 2024, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) published an updated Code of Practice for the pharmaceutical industry. Following an extensive consultation with over 3,000 comments, ABPI has announced that the new “orange” 2024 Code amends the previous 2021 Code in three key areas: the PMCPA constitution and procedure; the provision of prescribing information; and certain elements of the Code moving from guidance to mandatory requirements. However, there are also interesting amendments to the requirement to maintain high standards and obligation to seek a lawful basis for disclosure of transfers of value to an individual.

ABPI has said that the new Code seeks to “raise the high standards expected of pharmaceutical companies even further while also ensuring that complaints can be resolved quicker”.Continue Reading A New 2024 Code for the British Pharmaceutical Industry  – “The Future is Orange”

This digest covers key virtual and digital health regulatory and public policy developments during July and early August 2024  from United Kingdom, and European Union.

Following the UK national elections on July 4, 2024, which brought in a new government, the King delivered a speech to Parliament setting out the government’s key legislative and policy agenda. Of particular importance to the life sciences sector are the Product Safety and Metrology Bill and the Digital Information and Smart Data Bill. Although the scope and content of each bill is currently unknown, they could impact medical devices and innovative scientific research. Further, there was no artificial intelligence bill in the agenda, although the government will “seek to establish the appropriate legislation” in the future.Continue Reading Virtual and Digital Health Digest – August 2024

This digest covers key virtual and digital health regulatory and public policy developments during June 2024 from United Kingdom, and European Union.

While it has been a relatively quiet month in the EU given elections in the European Parliament and in the UK (as well as other countries across the EU), agencies across the globe have published important guidance on machine-learning enabled medical devices. This includes the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) guiding principles on transparency, published together with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada, and the International Medical Device Regulators Forum (IMDRF) consultation on its guiding principles on good machine learning practice (which itself follows similar guidance from MHRA, FDA, and Health Canada in 2021). This demonstrates the increased importance of international standards in this area and the need for coordination between regulatory authorities to standardize guidance for these products.Continue Reading Virtual and Digital Health Digest – July 2024

In the UK General Election on 4 July, the Labour Party won 412 of the 650 seats, giving it a comfortable majority. Its leader, Sir Keir Starmer, became Prime Minister, meaning a change of government from Conversative to Labour for the first time in 14 years.

In its campaign, Labour focused on the need to deliver economic growth and innovation in critical industry sectors. It also placed considerable emphasis on addressing the problems facing the National Health Service (NHS), such as long waiting lists for treatment, old equipment and an increasingly ageing population.

The government’s economic priorities were further set out in the first major speech delivered by the new Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves on 8 July, in which she said that growth “is now our national mission”. The Health Secretary Wes Streeting also noted his intention of making the Department of Health and Social Care a department for economic growth. While each of these are statements of intent and not binding on the new government, they provide valuable insight into what industry can expect over the next 5 years. We set out below some of the most relevant initiatives that could impact the industry.Continue Reading What does the new UK government mean for life sciences?

This digest covers key virtual and digital health regulatory and public policy developments during May and early June 2024 from United Kingdom, and European Union.

Of interest, artificial intelligence (AI) safety has been in focus over the past month, including with the publication of the Interim International Scientific Report on the Safety of Advanced AI. International collaboration in this area is increasing as world leaders met at the AI Summit in Seoul, and the UK government recently announced a collaboration on AI safety with Canada, supplementing its existing commitment with France. Further, the UK launched the AI safety evaluations platform, which is available to the global community. In the meantime, the EU has established an AI Office to oversee the implementation of the AI Act and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has published its AI Airlock to address novel challenges in the regulation of artificial intelligence medical devices (AIaMD).Continue Reading Virtual and Digital Health Digest – June 2024

On 21 May 2024, the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) published a statement of policy intent (the Statement) setting out its proposals for international recognition of regulatory “approvals” of medical devices. Under the proposed scheme, medical devices will be subject to limited pre-market requirements where they are already “approved” in a trusted jurisdiction. This will replace the current provisions, which permit recognition of EU CE marks, and will expand recognition to a wider set of trusted regulators, including the US in certain cases. This has long been an intention of the MHRA, and follows a similar procedure for medicines announced last year, although the practicalities of how this will work for devices and the role of the relevant stakeholders has been difficult to resolve.

The proposals are intended to avoid duplication of assessments for medical devices and it is hoped this will lead to quicker access to new devices in Great Britain. It will also allow the MHRA to meet its stated aim of focusing resources on innovative devices, particularly artificial intelligence medical devices (AIMD) that are excluded from the scheme.  However, the Statement is silent on who will undertake the reviews required under the access routes. This is subject to ongoing consultation, though it seems likely that any reviews would be conducted by UK Approved Bodies. This will require coordination between Approved Bodies and the MHRA, which will be an important step in ensuring this scheme operates as intended.

The MHRA intends that the new recognition scheme will come into force at the same time as the future core changes to the medical devices regulatory framework in Great Britain, discussed in a previous post. It is expected the draft regulations implementing that scheme will be published later this year, with the regulations coming into force in 2025.Continue Reading MHRA outlines proposals for international recognition of medical devices

The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has published its strategic approach to artificial intelligence (AI). The publication is in response to the request from the Secretaries of State of DSIT and DHSC dated 1 February 2024, in which the MHRA was asked to provide details about what steps it is taking in accordance with the principles and expectations of the Government’s pro-innovation approach set out in the white paper published in 2023. Further information is set out in our previous post.

The strategy provides information on how the MHRA views the risks and opportunities of AI from three perspectives:

  • MHRA as a regulator of AI products
  • MHRA as a public service organisation delivering time-critical decisions
  • MHRA as an organisation that makes evidence-based decisions that impact on public and patient safety, where that evidence is often supplied by third parties

The document is likely to be of particular interest to AIaMD manufacturers as it sets out in detail current and proposed regulations and guidance, and areas where this is likely to be tightened. Following the launch of the strategic approach, the government also published details of the AI Airlock regulatory sandbox, discussed in another post.

With a raft of measures relating to AI being published and additional measures expected in the next couple of years, pharmaceutical and medical device companies operating in the UK need to continually review how they will be impacted and respond appropriately.Continue Reading MHRA sets out its AI regulatory strategy

In our blog post on 22 February 2024 we reported on the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announcement that it intended to launch a regulatory sandbox for software and AI medical devices called the “AI-Airlock”. The pilot project went live on 9 May 2024, and government sources are citing it as a key component of the MHRA’s strategic approach to AI, published on 30 April 2024 (discussed in a separate post).Continue Reading The MHRA’s “AI Airlock” – what do you need to know?

On 5 April 2024, the MHRA updated various guidance documents on the impact of the Windsor Agreement (the Agreement) on parallel imports into and within the UK. Since the end of the Brexit transition period, EMA-issued parallel distribution notices (PDNs) ceased to be valid in Great Britain (GB). A PDN must be obtained by a parallel distributor prior to engaging in parallel distribution in the EU. In GB, PDNs were replaced by Parallel Import Licences (PLPIs), which allowed distribution of products in GB only; while PDNs continued to be valid in Northern Ireland (NI).

As of 1 January 2025, when the Agreement is due to take effect, PDNs will no longer be valid in NI. All parallel imports into GB and NI will require a PLPI from the MHRA that will apply across the whole UK, and any PLPIs that were previously limited to GB will automatically convert into UK-wide PLPIs from this date.Continue Reading Brexit update: Changes to parallel imports in the UK

A version of this article was first published in Life Sciences IP Review

There is currently no specific legislation in the UK that governs AI, or its use in healthcare. Instead, a number of general-purpose laws apply that have to be adapted to specific AI technologies. As a step towards a more coherent approach, the government recently published its response to its consultation on regulating AI in the UK.  This maintains the government’s “pro-innovation” framework of principles, to be set out in guidance rather than legislation, which will then be implemented by regulatory authorities in their respective sectors, such as by the MHRA for medicines.  The MHRA has already started this process and signalled itself as an early-adopter of the UK government’s approach. The hope is that this will lead to investment in the UK by life science companies as the UK is seen as a first-launch country for innovative technologies.Continue Reading The UK’s pro-innovation approach to AI: What does this mean for life science companies?