The comparable legislation that mandates user-fee waivers for small medicaldevice companies, the MedicalDevice User Fee and Modernization Act (MDUFMA), specifies different criteria: Whether or not a company is small is determined by gross receipts or sales for the company and affiliates.
While the FDA regularly sends out warning letters to medicaldevice and drug companies over design flaws or diverted and contaminated drugs, the SynchroMed case stands out because Medtronic is a known innovator in the medicaldevice space, so it is surprising it would not act sooner to resolve the issue.
We know medicaldevice manufacturers will prosper under the new law -- the Affordable Care Act expands health insurance coverage to more than 30 million Americans and these newly insured individuals will use products made by the medicaldevice industry.