Back to Explorer

Guidance on Informed Consent for In Vitro Diagnostic Device Studies Using Leftover Human Specimens that are Not Individually Identifiable : Guidance for Sponsors, Institutional Review Boards, and Food and Drug Administration Staff

FinalCenter for Devices and Radiological Health Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research,Office of Blood Research and Review04/25/2006

Description

FDA is issuingthis guidanceto inform sponsors, institutional review boards (IRBs), clinical investigators, and agency staff that the FDA intends to exercise enforcement discretion, under certain circumstances, with respect to its current regulations governing the requirement for informed consent when human specimens are used for FDA-regulatedin vitrodiagnostic (IVD) device investigations. As described below, FDA does not intend to object to the use, without informed consent, of leftover human specimens -- remnants of specimens collected for routine clinical care or analysis that would otherwise have been discarded -- in investigations that meet the criteria for exemption from the Investigational Device Exemptions (IDE) regulation at 21 CFR 812.2(c)(3), as long as subject privacy is protected by using only specimens that are not individually identifiable. FDA also intends to include in this policy specimens obtained from specimen repositories and specimens that are leftover from specimens previously collected for other unrelated research, as long as these specimens are not individually identifiable.

Scope & Applicability

Product Classes

1
In Vitro Diagnostic Device

IVDs for emerging pathogens during a Section 564 declared emergency

Stakeholders

2
Institutional Review Board

Governs top dose in clinical studies

Sponsor

Entity responsible for submitting applications under section 524B

Regulatory Context

Attributes

1
Not Individually Identifiable

specimens that are not individually identifiable

Related CFR Sections (4)

Related Warning Letters (10)

  • Clinical Investigator

    Shirish M. Gadgeel, M.D.

    2025-09-09
  • Clinical Investigator

    Mark J. Savant, M.D

    2025-07-15
  • Bioresearch Monitoring Program/Institutional Review Board (IRB)

    United Health Products, Inc.

    2025-05-20
  • Clinical Investigator

    Americo F. Padilla, M.D.

    2025-03-25
  • Institutional Review Board (IRB)

    Armstrong County Memorial Hospital

    2024-11-05
  • Clinical Investigator

    Namita A. Goyal, M.D.

    2024-10-22
  • Institutional Review Board (IRB)

    Louisiana State University Health Science Center IRB

    2024-10-08
  • Bioresearch Monitoring Program/IRB

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT

    2024-07-16
  • Clinical Investigator (Sponsor)

    Angela D. Ritter, M.D.

    2024-06-18
  • Institutional Review Board (IRB)

    New York State Psychiatric Institute IRB

    2024-03-26

See Also (8)