UK: "Regulator under fire on faulty implants" - MHRA's response to The Financial Times
02/2/2012
This letter refers to the PIP silicone breast implants improperly manufactured with an unauthorised silicone filler. There's a key message here which I don't think the public have really picked up on i.e. medical device regulation in Europe is based on full mutual recognition of the CE mark.
In plain English, this translates to "once a medical device (in this case the breast implant) has been given a CE mark in one European country, it can then be distributed and sold throughout the rest of Europe without the need of further individual registrations". Therefore, the MHRA are not at 'fault' because they weren't the original country to award the CE mark.
What is clear now, however, is that this incident will have a bearing on the future structure of the current EU Medical Device Directive, a directive which is already under scrutiny with proposals for revision to be put forward this summer.
Comment by Greer Deal, Director of Global Regulatory Services (GRS)