Category: Blog

Five months after the entering into force of the new electronic notification procedure instituted by the Italian Ministry of Health for food subject to notification, companies need to carry out a careful control of the status of the notifications performed so far for their products to maintain them on the market. The Ministry of health has in fact also updated the registries reporting the list of notified products. Currently tow registries are temporarily available for each of the following categories: food supplements formulas for infants food for special medical purposes gluten-free food specifically formulated for people suffering from celiac disease. However, as of 1st July 2019 one single register will be published and only the products included in it can...

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As every year, the Ministry of Health has met the actors involved in the manufacturing of veterinary medicinal products, dedicating 2 days to the information on veterinary products. This is the 12th edition of this event: there were interventions by ministry officers as well as representatives of MA holders and manufacturing sites of veterinary medicinal products. Such participation has allowed the sharing of issues and needs by all concerned parties. There has been much work done as well as many goals achieved. A further workload originated from the Brexit. Within 30th March 2019 all procedures shall be transferred to the Competent Authorities of the EU Member States. A RMS switch is therefore ongoing, currently completed for 63% of the veterinary...

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The Italian Ministry of Health has published a new update of the list of other nutrients and substances with nutritional or physiological effects (the latest version of the document was the revision of March 2018) and has circulated a brief note clarifying the changes introduced. In particular, the warning regarding the presence of lipoic acid was changed: the reference to the intake of lipid-reducing drugs was deleted and a warning was included on the need to ask for the doctor’s advice before using the product as lipoic acid can rarely cause hypoglycaemia. The occurrence of hypoglycaemia can in fact be related to the intake of the substances containing sulfhydryl groups (as lipoic acid), but there is no specific relation with...

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The type of company or project management strongly influences the objectives to be achieved while remaining within the cost and time constraints For example, the management of a company or of a "silos" project appears in a traditional view of the coordination models, which highlights both the hierarchy and the vertical organization among the various departments (or parts of a project) , both the clear separation and the preservation of a single link in the chain, preventing an opening both in and out of the other sectors. This kind of organisation has negative consequences on the achievements of the scopes, as the lack of communication and inter-exchange leads to a shift in priorities, from a wider interest in success to...

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Statisticians and biostatisticians are more and more present in clinical trials, since the early stages, like for instance the design itself. On the contrary, until recent years statistics was referred to only after the conclusion of the trial, often with negative effects. Today it is neither ethical not scientifically acceptable that patients undergo therapies, tests and treatments that are not necessary and whose use is not rational. In the light of these reflections, the role of the biostatistician becomes essential to manage and interpret any data from clinical research. It is a very important figure in any clinical trial, from its design to its carrying out, from analysis to documentation, for the control and containment of distortions and misleading factors...

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The Ministry of Health has published a note to clarify the actions to be taken for the products notified up to 2014. The products involved are those classified as food supplements, formulas for infants, food for special medical purposes, gluten-free food specifically formulated for people suffering from celiac disease and food added with vitamins and minerals. In particular, the notifications dating before 2008 and not updated afterwards, are considered automatically expired; whereas notifications or movements occurred between 2008 and 2014, if concerning products that are still on the market, should be updated by notifying the latest version of the label with the new online system no later than 30 June 2019. The requests were triggered by the constant update of...

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The sale of food supplements in Italy, through either traditional channels or online, is steadily growing and many companies are widening their activities in this sectors by developing international relations and changing their websites in consequence. These are supporting products that can be used by consumers to integrate the intake of specific substances in case of deficiencies or increased needs. As for Italy, the number of foreign companies actively engaged in a constant penetration of the national market (and therefore bound to comply with the strict requirements of the national legislation and Italian notification system) has increased. We know that in the latest years the increased sales of food supplement has much grown at international level and this has allowed...

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The transition from the old Directive on in vitro diagnostic medical devices 98/79/EC (IVDD) to the new Regulation 2017/746 (IVDR), which will apply from May 26th 2022, will be more of a landmark than the transition from the Directive on medical devices 93/42/EEC (MDD) to its new Regulation 2017/745 (MDR). Whereas for medical devices, the new MDR represents a systematizing upgrade of many arrangements, positions, procedures and decisions already variously existent in the regulatory landscape (plus new prescriptions that conversely can be also considered as technical extensions rather than new orientations), if not predictable remedies to experiences gained through the years (from scandals to borderline practices), many changes introduced by IVDR with respect to the old IVDD are real novelties...

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The Italian Ministry of Health has published a communication on their portal, regarding an action by the NAS, the special task force of the Italian ‘Carabinieri’ specialized in the fight against counterfeiting at all levels. Following the controls in shops in several Italian regions, the NAS seized several hundred packs of irregular cosmetic products. The concerned products were of different nature and were recalled as lacking information on their use and any essential information in Italian. Along with the recall of the cosmetic products, the product authorisation holders also received a money fine. Other investigations carried out on the web allowed the NAS to file charges against the holders of a company for the manufacturing and marketing of cosmetics that...

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Five years elapsed from the date of application of the Biocide regulation, but there is still much to be done both by European authorities and by companies. The review phase of active substances has not concluded yet for the approval of their use in biocide products and many dossiers of products under assessment are still waiting to receive the marketing authorisation. Moreover, in many European countries a transition phase is going on from the local legislation to the European biocide regulation. In particular, in Italy the provisions of the law on Medical Surgical Aids (Presidi Medico Chirurgici - PMC) that applies to some classes of products containing active substance under review are still valid. However, not all the classes of...

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