Podcast: Dietary Supplements – Navigating the Regulatory Maze – Diagnosing Health Care
Is It Necessary for Congress to Amend the FD&C Act for FDA to Have the Authority to Prohibit Tianeptine’s Sale? If the answer to this question is “no,” why are bills being introduced into Congress to give the U.S. Food and...more
On May 4, 2022, House Energy and Commerce (“E&C”) Committee leaders unveiled the legislative package to reauthorize the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA” or the “Agency”) user fee agreements (the “House Draft”)...more
Avanos Medical, a global medical device company, agreed to pay $22 million to resolve criminal charges relating to its fraudulent misbranding of its MicroCool surgical gowns....more
In 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP) issued four warning letters and two untitled letters to pharmaceutical companies for promotional materials that allegedly...more
Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP) posted two more warning letters for 2020, bringing the tally to five warning and untitled letters for the year. These...more
A judge in the District of Massachusetts recently questioned whether Congress intended to criminalize off-label promotion through misbranding and adulteration statutes. In an order denying a Rule 29 motion brought by two...more
Earlier this month, Tennessee House Bill 2220 (substituted for Senate Bill 2361) (Tennessee Law) was enacted, which provides, “A pharmaceutical manufacturer or its representatives may engage in the truthful promotion of...more
In my last post, I introduced a series of posts that will explore FDA’s historical approach to off-label drug and device communications, how that position has evolved (or not) to the modern day, and predict where that policy...more
Executive Summary: The most important Park doctrine case in over forty years may be heading to the Supreme Court – but not if the federal government has its way. The Responsible Corporate Officer doctrine (“RCO doctrine”),...more
On March 8, 2016, Amarin Pharma, Inc. and FDA entered into a formal settlement, close to a year after the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted a preliminary injunction against FDA’s threats to...more
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recently held that the FDA may not constitutionally bring a misbranding action based on truthful and non-misleading off-label promotion of an FDA-approved drug,...more
To quote the late Yogi Berra, it must feel like déjà vu all over again for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (or, if you prefer, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s song, “Déjà Vu” (“We have all been here before”)). Fresh off...more
The Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment prevailed in the latest challenge to the FDA's prohibition against marketing FDA-approved drugs for off-label (or non-FDA-approved) uses. Applying the Second Circuit’s...more
Pharmaceutical manufacturers have likely taken note of Amarin Pharma Inc.’s recent success in a pre-enforcement legal challenge against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency). On August 7, 2015, Amarin obtained...more
This week might have been the first time that an FDA regulatory issue hit the headlines on TMZ and other “celebrity watcher” websites. In an August 7 Warning Letter sent to the drug company Duchesnay, Inc., FDA complains...more
Last week, a federal judge ruled that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cannot prohibit a pharmaceutical company from marketing its drugs for off-label uses if its claims are truthful and not misleading. This ruling,...more
Amarin is an important US district court opinion affirming the importance of the Second Circuit’s Caronia decision and finding that pharmaceutical and medical device companies have a constitutionally protected right to...more
Mail-order businesses, including pharmacies, bombard doctors by fax, phone, and Internet offering an assortment of name-brand medications and treatments at bargain prices. These new options tempt physicians with the promise...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has upheld the wire fraud and misbranding convictions and sentence of InterMune Inc. founder W. Scott Harkonen. United States v. Harkonen, No. 11-10209 (9th Cir. March 4, 2013)....more
After two years of deliberation, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals has finally issued its decision in United States v. Caronia, holding that the government cannot prosecute pharmaceutical manufacturers or their...more
After the Second Circuit’s split decision in U.S. v. Caronia, holding that truthful off-label marketing is protected under the First Amendment and thus cannot be prosecuted under the misbranding provisions of the Food Drug...more
On December 3, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that the First Amendment protects pharmaceutical companies who truthfully promote the lawful, off-label use of prescription drugs from...more
On December 3, 2012, a panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned the November 2009 conviction of Alfred Caronia for conspiracy to introduce a misbranded drug into interstate commerce...more
On December 3, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned the conviction of a pharmaceutical sales representative convicted for misbranding in violation of the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic...more
On December 3, 2012, a divided Second Circuit held in United States v. Caronia (“Caronia”) that the misbranding provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (“FDCA”) do not criminalize “the truthful off-label...more