The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has strengthened benefit-risk language in the latest redo of ISO 14971, the voluntary standard that instructs device-makers on how to best put together a risk management program. Regulators – including US FDA – are increasingly considering benefit-risk when weighing product availability and regulatory compliance issues. And Jos Van Vroonhoven, convener of a joint working group that revised the standard, says a more global regulatory emphasis on risk management and a desire to clarify the document in general led ISO to revise the standard. Also: Van Vroonhoven identifies four updated clauses in the revamped standard that firms should keep a sharp eye on.

FDA issues a draft guidance July 15 describing how it weighs the risks and benefits to prove substantial equivalency in 510(k) devices when the new product’s technological characteristics differ from its predicate device.

This week, the Biden administration announced a new council on supply chain resilience that includes health care goals; an apparent enforcement surge against device fraud continued; Siemens won a $5.5m grant to develop a better sepsis test; and the FDA proposed new classifications for wound care products.