Mass Tort Defense : Mass Tort Defense Lawyer & Attorney : Sean P. Wajert : Dechert Law Firm : Products Liability, Class Actions, Pharmaceutical Litigation

Readers know how California's often extreme statutory and regulatory initiatives can influence toxic tort litigation.  Now comes word that California regulators last week released a proposed framework for forthcoming regulations to reduce certain chemicals in consumer products, as part of its “green chemistry” initiative.

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control’s release of an outline of the Draft Regulations for Safer Products is a second step in identifying "chemicals of concern" in California. The outline proposes guidelines for scientific and systematic prioritization of chemicals and products of concern, certification of alternatives assessment and development of DTSC’s regulatory response. Those responses may include banning substances or products, and end-of-life management issues. It also described a process manufacturers could use to evaluate the chemicals and safer have to perform an "Alternatives Assessment" for the product. Note that any public or private entity or individual may petition the Department to evaluate a chemical or a chemical and product combination during the prioritization process.

DTSC called for feedback on the outline.  The next step will be creating actual draft regulations based on the outline. The agency said that draft regulations will be released in the very near future, and that it will begin a formal rule-making process. State law requires the regulations be adopted by January 1, 2011.

California's green chemistry initiative, a statutory mandate since 2008, is an effort to identify and to reduce the use of chemicals that regulators conclude pose the greatest risk to public health and the environment. 

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The Food and Drug Administration has proposed to amend its regulations concerning direct-to-
consumer (DTC) advertisements of prescription drugs. Specifically, the proposed rule would implement a new requirement of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, added by the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 (FDAAA), that the major statement in DTC television or radio advertisements relating to the side effects and contraindications of an advertised prescription drug intended for use by humans be presented in a clear, conspicuous, and neutral manner. See 75 Fed. Reg. 15,376 (3/29/10). FDA is also proposing standards that the agency would consider in determining whether the major statement in these advertisements is presented in the manner required by FDAAA.

Readers of MassTortDefense know how DTC ads have impacted products litigation, from effects on the learned intermediary doctrine, to influence on the jury pool, to forming part of the basis of substantive information-based claims.

Under the current regulations the presentation of risk information in an advertisement for a prescription human or animal drug is required to be comparable in prominence and readability to the presentation of effectiveness information in the advertisement. If an advertisement presents effectiveness information in a clear and conspicuous manner, risk information is required to be presented in a comparable manner.  The new proposal would require disclosure of the major side effects and contraindications of the drug in a clear, conspicuous, and neutral manner, regardless of the manner in which effectiveness information is presented in the advertisement.

The proposed regulations would define the required clear, conspicuous, and neutral manner, as being met if:

1. Information is presented in language that is readily understandable by consumers;
2. Audio information is understandable in terms of the volume, articulation, and pacing used;
3. Textual information is placed appropriately and is presented against a contrasting background for sufficient duration and in a size and style of font that allows the information to be read easily; and
4. The advertisement does not include distracting representations (including statements, text, images, or sounds or any combination thereof) that detract from the communication of the major
statement.

FDA said it recognizes that these standards require judgment in their application. Therefore, the agency does not intend to prescribe a set formula for ‘‘clear, conspicuous, and neutral’’ major
statements because there is more than one way to achieve these standards in a television or radio ad. FDA intends to be flexible enough to consider the variety of techniques sponsors may use to appropriately convey required risk information in prescription drug ads. Sponsors have the flexibility to be creative in designing their ads as long as all of the standards listed here are complied with such that the major statement is communicated effectively to consumers and the overall message
that the advertisement conveys to consumers is accurate and non-misleading.

Comments on the proposed rule are due by June 28, 2010.

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Two Democratic legislators have introduced a bill that would create an FDA program to assess the potential health and safety effects of nano-technology ingredients in various consumer products.  Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) introduced the "Nanotechnology Safety Act of 2010," S. 2942, last week. Their introductory remarks here.

The FDA established a Nanotechnology Task Force, which issued a report in July 2007. In the task force report, recommendations were made regarding FDA’s future direction for regulating nanomaterial-containing products. Guidance development was included as one the recommendations. The FDA’s Advisory Committee for Pharmaceutical Science and Clinical Pharmacology met In 2008. Among the agenda topics was a discussion of issues pertaining to the use of nanotechnology in drug manufacturing, drug delivery, or drug products.  Later, FDA held a public meeting to gather information that will assist the agency in further implementing the recommendations of the Nanotechnology Task Force Report relating to the development of agency guidance documents concerning nanotechnology.

The bill would create a program for the scientific investigation of nanoscale materials included or intended for inclusion in FDA-regulated products, to address the potential toxicology of such materials, the effects of such materials on biological systems, and interaction of such materials with biological systems.  Specifically, FDA would be charged to assess scientific literature and data on general nanoscale material interactions with biological systems and on specific nanoscale materials of concern to Food and Drug Administration, and collect, synthesize, interpret, and disseminate scientific information and data related to the interactions of nanoscale materials with biological systems.

Nanotechnology applications in drug development are likely to have a significant impact on the products that FDA regulates. Products containing nanomaterials are being investigated for potential applications as therapeutics, and some products containing nanoscale materials are already on the market. While some of these nanomaterials are nanoscale versions of larger materials used in approved products, other nanomaterials are novel and have never been used in drug products. In 2009, the FDA introduced the "Nanotechnology Initiative", a collaborative effort between FDA and the Alliance for NanoHealth.

The proposed law would also require a report from FDA by 2012 that includes a review of the coordination of activities under the program with other departments and agencies participating in the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The bill would send $25 million annual funding to the agency for the program. The bill was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,

Many readers of MassTortDefense know that nanotechnology refers to a new field of technology that seeks to manipulate and control products, really matter, on the atomic and molecular scale, typically 100 nanometers or smaller. To give some sense of scale, one nanometer is one billionth, or 10-9 of a meter. A nanometer compared to a meter is the roughly the same ratio as that of a baseball to the size of the Earth. Or another analogy, a nanometer is the length a man's whiskers grow in the time it takes him to lift his razor to his face to shave. We have posted on this topic here, here, and here.
 

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The Environmental Protection Agency recently issued its first Chemical Action Plan (CAP).  The plan deals with  phthalates, which are found in some food packaging and cosmetics.  But anyone in the chemical industry should take notice, as this CAP comes as part of EPA’s efforts to enhance the existing chemicals program under the Toxic Substances Control Act. EPA has identified an initial list of widely recognized chemicals, including phthalates, for action plan development based on one or more of the following factors: their presence in humans; persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic  characteristics; use in consumer products; or production volume.

Although many in industry support  EPA’s effort to update agency actions for prioritized chemicals under TSCA, there is much to question in this effort so far, including the fact that the initial set of chemicals seem to have been selected based on their current “high-profile” nature. EPA should prioritize chemicals for the CAP program based on scientific criteria that reflect available hazard, use, and exposure information.  Despite the new Administration's campaign promises, there has been little transparency, and in fact great uncertainty, over the scientific basis for the selection of these chemicals.  Unfortunately, the CAP process to date provides no evidence of a systematic, science-based approach to chemicals management.

A large body of scientific data already exists about phthalates, and these products have been subject to numerous government safety assessments.  Bio-monitoring data shows that exposure to phthalates in the general public are below safety limits established by the EPA and the European Union. In assessing potential future restrictions on certain phthalates, EPA plans to weigh the relative toxicity and feasibility of phthalate substitutes. Identification of safer and affordable non-phthalate substitutes will be an important consideration in any action that would restrict the use
of these chemicals.  EPA intends to conduct a Design for the Environment and Green Chemistry alternatives assessment by 2012. The information developed could be used to encourage industry to move away from phthalates in a non-regulatory setting to expand risk management effects beyond whatever regulatory action might be taken under TSCA, or could be used as input to a regulatory action. 

EPA also intends to lay the groundwork to consider initiating in 2012 rulemaking under TSCA section 6(a) to further regulate phthalates. Readers know how regulatory events can spawn and impact toxic tort litigation.  It should be noted  that an Action Plan is intended to describe the courses of action the Agency plans to pursue in the near term to address its concerns. The Action Plan does not constitute a final Agency determination or other final Agency action.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced recently that it had commissioned the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to study the premarket notification program used to review and clear certain medical devices marketed in the United States. (Established in 1970 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine is supposed to provide independent, objective, evidence-based advice to policymakers, health professionals, the private sector, and the public.)

The IOM study will examine a premarket notification program, also called the 510(k) process, for medical devices. While the IOM study is underway, the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) will apparently convene its own internal working group to evaluate and improve the consistency of FDA decision making in the 510(k) process.

The FDA classifies medical devices into three categories according to their level of risk. Class III devices (highest level of risk) generally require premarket approval to support their safety and effectiveness before they may be marketed. Class I and Class II devices pose lower risks and most Class II devices and some Class I devices can be marketed after submission of certain premarket notifications— the 510(k) applications.  A 510(k) is a premarket submission made to FDA to demonstrate that the device to be marketed is at least as safe and effective -- that is, substantially equivalent -- to a legally marketed device (21 CFR 807.92(a)(3)) that is not subject to pre-marketing approval. Submitters must compare their device to one or more similar legally marketed devices and make and support their substantial equivalency claims. Devices that present a new intended use or include new technology that presents new questions of safety or effectiveness may not be found substantially equivalent and thus may require premarket approval.

The 510(k) process was established under the Medical Device Amendments of 1976 with two goals: to make safe and effective devices available to consumers, and to promote innovation in the medical device industry. FDA says that during the past three decades, technology and the medical device industry have changed dramatically, making it an appropriate time for a review of the adequacy of the premarket notification program in meeting these two goals.

As part of the study, the IOM will convene a committee to answer two principal questions: Does the current 510(k) process optimally protect patients and promote innovation in support of public  health? If not, what legislative, regulatory, or administrative changes are recommended to achieve the goals of the 510(k) process? The IOM review is supposed to be completed in 2011.

The study comes after the U.S. House Subcommittee on Health held hearings concerning medical devices last June.  The Democratic majority said there is evidence of an approval system that is "broken" - - that its standards, its procedures and its rules don't meet modern needs of getting medical devices to those in need with sufficient confidence in their safety.  However, while critics point to a handful of device recall issues, more than 250,000 devices have gone through the 510(k) process.
 

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The FDA is considering issuing guidelines on acrylamide content in food.  The agency has published a notice seeking comments from industry on the issue.

Acrylamide is a chemical formed primarily in baked and fried foods by a reaction between sugars and the amino acid asparagine. The reaction is partly responsible for the golden color and tasty flavor of baked, fried, and toasted foods. In 2002, some Swedish scientists reported unexpectedly high levels of acrylamide in carbohydrate-rich foods and also published a study associating the chemical to cancer in laboratory rats. Further research subsequently determined that acrylamide can form in some foods during certain types of high-temperature cooking.

FDA has not yet issued guidance for manufacturers on reducing acrylamide in food. However, it is anticipated by the agency that new information will soon be available about the toxicology of acrylamide, which may shed light on acrylamide's potential carcinogenicity in laboratory animals. Readers of MassTortDefense know how difficult it is to leap from animal studies to causation conclusions in human beings, because of the physiological and metabolism differences between species, the excessive dosages that are (and typically must be) given to experimental animals, and the varying biological defense mechanisms that species have to environmental insults.

International efforts to develop approaches to acrylamide mitigation are also beginning to prove successful. Moreover, FDA is aware that at least some manufacturers in the United States are seeking ways to reduce acrylamide in their products. In this context, FDA is considering issuing guidance for industry on reduction of acrylamide levels in food products.

Health Canada recently added acrylamide to that nation’s toxic substances list, as part of its ongoing review of over 200 chemical substances in commercial use. It stated that current consumption levels “may constitute a danger in Canada to human life or health,” but it also acknowledged that research into a possible carcinogenic link for humans has so far been inconclusive.

In fact, dietary intakes of acrylamide are not related to increased risks of brain cancer, according to a recently released study of 58,279 men and 62,573 women, published by Maastricht University in the Netherlands. J.G.F. Hogervorst, et al., “Dietary Acrylamide Intake and Brain Cancer Risk,” 18 Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (2009).  Researchers have also reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that dietary acrylamide was not linked to lung cancer risk, and that the compounds may even reduce the risk in women. "Lung Cancer Risk in Relation to Dietary Acrylamide Intake," 101(9) JNCI 651-662 (2009).

In seeking comments, the FDA has asked food manufacturers to respond with details of any manufacturing changes they have made, the success and cost-effectiveness of those changes, methods for acrylamide reduction that could be appropriate for smaller manufacturers, and changes to on-pack instructions for consumers to mitigate acrylamide formation.

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Readers of MassTortDefense know how FDA actions can instigate and affect potential mass tort litigation involving drugs and devices. Last week, in a presentation to the Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI), new FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg revealed that the FDA will implement procedural reforms designed to allow the agency to act more quickly and aggressively on the enforcement of food, drug, and medical device regulations. The FDA commissioner told FDLI that the federal watchdog will be a leaner and meaner organization under her leadership.

In her remarks, the Commissioner noted that while impressed by the commitment to compliance that many companies have made – both in terms of their corporate culture and their investment in compliance systems -- her goal is for all companies to make and implement such a commitment in order to prevent harm to the public. A key part of the strategy to support private sector compliance is more effective enforcement against violations of the law. She suggested that such enforcement helps industry too – by maintaining a level playing field for safe products. Making sure that offenders are held legally accountable prevents companies from having to choose between doing the right thing and staying competitive.

An effective enforcement strategy depends on several key elements she said:

• The FDA must be vigilant. Through regular inspections and follow-up on signals indicating problems, the FDA must work to identify and resolve problems early. Companies must have a realistic expectation that if they are crossing the line, they will be caught, and that if they fail to act, FDA will.
• The FDA must be strategic, she continued. The agency must place greater emphasis on significant risks and violations, and use meaningful penalties to send a strong message to discourage future offenses.
• The FDA must be quick. The agency must be able to respond rapidly to egregious violations or violations that jeopardize public health.

More specifically, she said the pathways for enforcement action can be too long and arduous. To address this, the FDA will set post-inspection deadlines. When the FDA finds that a firm is significantly out of compliance, it will expect a prompt response to the findings, generally no more than fifteen working days before the FDA moves ahead with a warning letter or enforcement action.

Second, the FDA will take steps to speed the issuance of warning letters. There will be a new policy to limit warning letter review to significant legal issues.

Third, the FDA will work more closely with regulatory partners to develop effective risk control and enforcement strategies. In many food safety cases, for example, local, state, and international officials have more authority to take action quickly than the FDA.

Fourth, the FDA will prioritize enforcement follow-up. After a warning letter is issued or a major product recall occurs, FDA will make it a priority to follow up promptly with appropriate action, such as an inspection or investigation to assess whether or not a company has made required changes in its practices.

Fifth, she said, the FDA will no longer issue multiple warning letters to non-compliant firms before taking enforcement action. And, in the case of significant health concerns or egregious violations, FDA will consider immediate action – even before issuing a formal warning letter.

Finally, the FDA is developing a formal warning letter “close-out” process. If the FDA can determine, usually based on a re-inspection, that a firm has fully corrected the violations raised in a warning letter, it will provide to the firm a “close-out” letter, indicating that the issues in the warning letter have been successfully addressed. One can imagine how the obtaining or failure to obtain a close-out letter may be anissue in litigation.
 

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The House Energy and Commerce Committee last week approved legislation that would give the FDA more funding and power to police food safety.  The unanimous voice vote for a version of the bill offered by committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D., Calif.) came after extensive negotiations between Democrats and Republicans. The "Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009,"  H.R. 2749, will now go to the entire House.

The bill comes at least in part in response to recent outbreaks of illnesses traced to tainted spinach, peanuts, hot peppers and other foods. The legislation would give the FDA greater authority to order food recalls, impose new civil penalties, and require inspections of so-called high-risk food facilities at least once a year.  It also calls for companies to keep detailed records to help the FDA more quickly trace the distribution of tainted foods and track the source of the contamination.  Specifically, the FDA would be required to issue regulations that require food producers, manufacturers, processors, transporters or holders to maintain the full pedigree of the origin and previous distribution history of the food and to link that history with the subsequent distribution history of the food.
 

The Grocery Manufacturers Association, a food industry group, released a statement in support of the bill, after Democrats agreed to a number of changes. (For example, they added a cap so no company would be charged more than $175,000 in fees to pay for the new bill.)  Critics of the bill argue that it would impose a one-size-fits-all regulatory scheme on big and small farms and on national and local food producers; does not address the major underlying causes of food safety problems such as industrial agriculture practices and the consolidation of our food supply. Others assert that the bill, by apparently empowering the FDA to regulate how crops are raised and harvested, puts the federal government right on the farm, dictating to farmers "good farming practices" on organic farming, use of manure, GMO animal feed, animal drugs, and petrochemical fertilizers and pesticide issues.

At last report, the House hasn't scheduled a vote on the legislation. In the Senate, Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin has introduced similar food-safety legislation.

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A new report from the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies argues that existing health and safety agencies are unable to cope with the risk assessment, standard setting, and oversight challenges of advancing nanotechnology. The new report, Oversight of Next Generation Nanotechnology, says the nation needs a new agency to deal with the health and environmental impacts of these technically complex products promised by rapid 21st century scientific advances.

Nanotechnology involves working at the scale of single atoms and molecules. The U.S. government defines nanotechnology as “the way discoveries made at the nanoscale are put to work.” The nanoscale is roughly 1–100 nanometers. There are 25.4 million nanometers in an inch and 10 million nanometers in a centimeter.

Nanoscale materials often behave differently than materials with a larger structure do, even when the basic material (e.g., silver or carbon) is the same. Nanomaterials can have different chemical, physical, electrical, and biological characteristics. For example, an aluminum can is perfectly safe, but nano-sized aluminum is explosive.

The novel characteristics of nanomaterials mean that risk assessments developed for ordinary materials may be of limited use in determining the health and environmental risks (and thus product liability and mass tort risks) of the products of nanotechnology. A body of literature speculates about the potential for unusual health and environmental risks given that nanometer-scale particles can get to places in the environment and the human body that are inaccessible to larger particles. Nanomaterials have a much larger ratio of surface area to mass than ordinary materials do. It is at the surface of materials that biological and chemical reactions take place, and so some expect nanomaterials to be more reactive than bulk materials.

The report explains that almost all the current applications of nano are “passive,” in that they involve adding a nanomaterial to an ordinary material as a way of improving performance. For example, adding carbon nanotubes to rubber can greatly increase the toughness of the rubber without reducing its flexibility. Passive nanotechnology applications thus include using materials like carbon nanotubes, silver nanoparticles and porous nanomaterials to add functionality to products by nature of their physical and chemical form, rather than by how they respond to their environment.

Second generation, "active" nanostructures, typically involve nanometer-scale structures that change their behavior in response to changes in their environment. These changes might come about as a result of a mechanical force, a magnetic field, exposure to light, the presence of certain biological molecules or a host of other factors.

A good deal of research, involving a variety of different nanotechnologies, is being devoted to cancer detection and cure. One of the main goals of using nanotechnology for medical purposes, observes the report, is to create devices that can function inside the body and serve as drug delivery systems with specific targets. Another hot area: researchers are exploring the use of nanomaterials and nanotechnology techniques to vastly improve computers.

Even the first-generation nanotechnologies challenge traditional risk assessment methods, argues the report. Multiple characteristics contribute to the potential toxicity of many nanomaterials; they include not just mass or number of particles but also the shape of the particles, the electrical charge at the particle surface, the coating of the particle with another material and numerous other characteristics. Science has yet to determine which of these characteristics are most important under what circumstances.

After describing the current regulatory regime, the paper calls for a more unitary regulatory approach, including a new Department of Environmental and Consumer Protection to oversee product regulation, pollution control and monitoring, and technology assessment.
 

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A Washington, DC think tank last week released a new report with suggestions on how the next administration should approach regulation of nano-technology in products.  The Project on Emerging Technologies is based at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. The Project was established in 2005 as a partnership between the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Pew Charitable Trusts. The Project is dedicated to helping ensure that as nanotechnologies advance, possible risks are minimized, public and consumer engagement remains strong, and the potential benefits of these new technologies are realized.

Nanotechnologies are hailed by many as the next industrial revolution. They promise to change everything from the cars we drive to the clothes we wear, from the medical treatments our doctors can offer to our energy sources and workplaces. Although focused on very small particles, nanotechnologies offer large potential benefits. From new cancer therapies to pollution-eating compounds, from more durable consumer products to detectors for bio-hazards like anthrax, from novel foods to more efficient solar cells, nanotechnologies are changing the way people think about the future.

The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies collaborates with researchers, government, industry, NGOs, policymakers, and others to look long term, to identify gaps in knowledge and regulatory processes, and to develop strategies for closing them. The Project's stated mission is to try to provide independent knowledge and analysis that can inform critical decisions affecting the development and commercialization of nanotechnologies.

A source of uncertainty for nanotechnology is regulation. The Project released a 28-page regulatory agenda for the next administration, noting that whichever candidate wins is going to have to deal with this issue, probably sooner rather than later. The next president has the opportunity to ensure that nanotechnology’s benefits will be maximized and its risks identified and mitigated, says the group. 

The report, Nanotechnology Oversight: An Agenda for the Next Administration, calls for the White House and federal agency policymakers to maximize the use of existing laws to improve nanotechnology oversight. Such measures include defining nanomaterials as “new” substances under federal toxics and food laws, thereby enabling the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to consider the novel qualities and effects of nanomaterials. The group addresses whether the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Consumer Product Safety Act need to be amended to cover nanotechnology.

The Project notes that more nanotech products are hitting the market. From March, 2006 to February, 2007, the number of manufactured goods using nanotech tripled to 600.  For fiscal 2009, the federal government has devoted $1.5 billion to nanotech, a sum split up between various agencies. Under the Bush administration, EPA has a Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program, which is endorsed by the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association, the American Chemistry Council and the NanoBusiness Alliance. Some state governments, however, are pushing forward with their own rules on nanotech.

Coincidentally, consumer advocates said this week that food produced by using nanotechnology is quietly coming onto the market, and they want U.S. authorities to force manufacturers to identify them. New consumer products created through nanotechnology are coming on the market at the rate of 3 to 4 per week, according to The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies.

MassTortDefense has posted on nanotechnology here and here.

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