A Regulatory and Safety Perspective on Medical Devices

Abstract

In the European Union (EU), medical devices (MD) industry is a representative employer, with the MD sales accounting for EUR 100 billion. This chapter presents the classification and give some examples of MD in EU and describes and analyzes all safety alerts on MD of a member state of EU in 2017. International laws were used to define MD. Examples and safety alerts of MD of the Portuguese medicine agency were considered. MD are not medicines, but they have a medicinal application. MD are classified in Classes I-III. Only 32 safety alerts were identified in Portugal, none related to serious adverse events, and 6 related to devices voluntarily withdrawal from the market, for example, counterfeit products. The concept of MD is clearly defined in regulations. Although alerts on MD are limited, falsified products were identified in EU market, which is extremely regulated. For instance, future development of safety, traceable, and economic devices is very important to assure, patients' safety and access.