The FDA has proposed amending its regulations on acceptance of data from clinical studies for medical devices. The agency is proposing to require that clinical studies conducted outside the United States as support for an investigational device exemption (IDE) application, a 510(k) premarket notification submission, a premarket approval application, a product development protocol application, or a humanitarian device exemption application be conducted in accordance with good clinical practices, which includes obtaining and documenting the review and approval of the study by an independent ethics committee and obtaining and documenting freely given informed consent of study subjects.

The proposed rule is intended to update the standards for FDA acceptance of data from clinical studies conducted outside the United States and to help ensure the protection of human subjects and the quality and integrity of data obtained from these studies. As part of this proposed rule, the FDA are also proposing to amend the IDE and 510(k) regulations to address the requirements for FDA acceptance of data from clinical studies conducted inside the United States. The proposed amendments are intended to provide consistency in FDA requirements for acceptance of clinical data, whatever the application or submission type.

The proposed rule is available using the following web link: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-02-25/pdf/2013-04201.pdf