FDA, Industry Form Nonprofit for Medical Devices

The FDA announced on Dec. 3 a new nonprofit corporation to promote medical device regulatory science. The new corporation is called the Medical Device Innovation Consortium (MDIC) and is a public-private partnership between the FDA and Minnesota-based LifeScience Alley. MDIC is intended to help facilitate faster development, assessment and review of new medical devices.

“MDIC will prioritize the regulatory science needs of the medical device community and fund projects to help simplify the process of medical device design and pathway to market for these innovations,” an FDA press release states. “The MDIC will bolster the country’s investment in regulatory science research by pooling people, funding, resources, and ideas to develop new tools, models, and methods that may be utilized to better and more efficiently evaluate new devices.”

The partnership between the FDA and LifeScience Alley was first announced in Aug. 2011. According to MedCity News, MDIC is charged with streamling the regulatory process so that patients can benefit more quickly from the latest medical device technologies.