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Scott Danzis

Scott Danzis is a partner in Covington's Food, Drug, and Device Practice Group and chairs the Firm’s Medical Device Industry Group. Scott is a leading expert on the regulation of medical devices, diagnostics, and digital health. He regularly helps clients navigate their most complex regulatory challenges, including strategies for premarket review, postmarket compliance, and enforcement actions. Scott counsels many of the world's preeminent medical device companies on a range of matters, including advertising and promotion, recalls, quality system issues, medical device reporting, clinical and non-clinical testing, FDA inspections, and other regulatory matters.

Scott previously served in FDA’s Office of the Chief Counsel where he served as the Special Assistant to the Chief Counsel of FDA. At FDA, Scott was involved in a wide range of legal and regulatory matters, including significant rulemaking, enforcement actions, and legislative initiatives.

Scott speaks regularly at conferences regarding FDA regulation of devices and diagnostics, and since 2010 serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches a course on FDA law.

Scott is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Virginia Law Review and elected to the Order of Coif. He also holds a Master’s Degree from George Washington University and a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University.

From 2006 to 2008, Scott served as the Special Assistant to the Chief Counsel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. While at FDA, he was broadly involved in a wide range of legal and regulatory matters related to medical devices and drugs. He also worked on implementing key provisions of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007.

Scott has significant experience in the following areas:

  • FDA regulatory strategies, including strategies for the premarket review (510(k)s, PMAs) of medical devices;
  • Appeals and dispute resolution within FDA;
  • IDEs, INDs, and clinical trial regulation;
  • Advertising, promotion, and scientific exchange, including responding to enforcement actions and investigations;
  • Imports and exports of FDA regulated products;
  • QSR and cGMP requirements, including responding to FDA 483s and enforcement actions;
  • Product recalls;
  • Adverse event and MDR reporting;
  • FDA consent decrees and OIG corporate integrity agreements;
  • Regulatory due diligence;
  • Compliance with antifraud statutes, including the anti-kickback statute and the False Claims Act.

Scott recently developed and edited a book on the regulation of in vitro diagnostic products and laboratory testing, In Vitro Diagnostics: The Complete Regulatory Guide (FDLI, 2010). He currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center where he teaches a course on the regulation of drugs, biologics, and medical devices.

Scott clerked for the Honorable Chester J. Straub on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Virginia Law Review and elected to the Order of the Coif. He holds a Masters Degree from George Washington University in Health Care Management and Policy, and a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University.

On March 15, 2024, FDA’s medical product centers – CBER, CDER, and CDRH – along with the Office of Combination Products (OCP) published a paper outlining their key areas of focus for the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) across the medical product life cycle.  The paper, entitled “

Continue Reading FDA Medical Product Centers Continue Focus on AI

On September 6, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, issued a white paper about the oversight and legislative role of Congress related to the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in areas under the HELP Committee’s jurisdiction, including health

Continue Reading Framework for the Future of AI: Senator Cassidy Issues White Paper, Seeks Public Feedback

As we kick off 2022, several recent developments from FDA suggest that this year could be pivotal for the Agency’s digital health priorities.  From new FDA offices and artificial intelligence guidance, to FDA’s user fee commitments and must-pass legislation in Congress, this post outlines five key issues to watch in
Continue Reading 5 Digital Health Issues to Watch at FDA in 2022

On July 28, 2020, FDA announced the publication of a final guidance on Multiple Function Device Products: Policy and Considerations that outlines FDA’s evolving approach to the regulation of multiple function device products, including software.

The concept of “multiple function” products was introduced by the 21st Century Cures Act
Continue Reading FDA Issues Final Guidance on Multiple Function Digital Health Software and Other Devices

The following guidance could be relevant to manufacturers of software as a medical device (SaMD).  The recently-enacted Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) added new section 506J to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA). This section requires manufacturers of certain devices to notify FDA of
Continue Reading Client Alert: FDA Issues Temporary Guidance on New CARES Act Provision Requiring Certain Device Notifications to CDRH

On September 26, 2019, the FDA issued two revised guidance documents addressing its evolving approach to the regulation of digital health technologies. These guidances primarily describe when digital health solutions will or will not be actively regulated by FDA as a medical device. In parallel, FDA also updated four previously final guidance documents to ensure alignment with the new approaches being adopted by the Agency.

As background, FDA issued draft guidance documents in December 2017 that sought to implement section 520(o)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (“FDCA”), which was enacted by Congress in the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016 (the “Cures Act”). Those guidance documents raised a number of issues that we discussed on this previous alert.

After receiving comments from stakeholders, the Agency responded by issuing: (i) a revised draft guidance document for clinical decision support (CDS) software (“Clinical and Patient Decision Support Software” or the “CDS Draft Guidance”) and (ii) a final guidance document for other software functions exempted by the Cures Act (“Changes to Existing Medical Software Policies Resulting from Section 3060 of the 21st Century Cures Act” or the “Software Policies Guidance”).

Here are key takeaways on FDA’s newly-issued guidance:
Continue Reading FDA Issues Updated Guidance on the Regulation of Digital Health Technologies

On April 2, 2019, FDA released a discussion paper entitled “Regulatory Framework for Modifications to Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML)-Based Software as a Medical Device (SaMD)” (the “AI Framework”). The AI Framework is the Agency’s first policy document describing a potential regulatory approach for medical devices that use artificial intelligence (“AI”) and machine learning (“ML”). The AI Framework does not establish new requirements or an official policy, but rather was released by FDA to seek early input prior to the development of a draft guidance. FDA acknowledges that the approach “may require additional statutory authority to implement fully.”

In an accompanying press release, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb outlined the need for a “more tailored” regulatory paradigm for algorithms that learn and adapt in the real world. FDA’s medical device regulation scheme was not designed for dynamic machine learning algorithms, as the Agency traditionally encounters products that are static at the time of FDA review. The AI Framework is FDA’s attempt to develop “an appropriate framework that allows the software to evolve in ways to improve its performance while ensuring that changes meet [FDA’s] gold standard for safety and effectiveness throughout the product’s lifecycle.”
Continue Reading FDA Outlines Proposed Framework for Regulating Artificial Intelligence Software

On December 8, FDA addressed the agency’s evolving approach to digital health by issuing two new draft guidance documents: “Clinical and Patient Decision Support Software” (the “CDS Draft Guidance”) and “Changes to Existing Medical Software Policies Resulting From Section 3060 of the 21st Century Cures Act” (the “Software Policies Draft Guidance”). These draft guidances announce the agency’s initial interpretation of the health software provisions enacted as part of last year’s 21st Century Cures Act (the “Cures Act”).

Given the rapid pace of digital health innovation across the life sciences, technology and health care sectors, FDA guidance on these topics is critical. Here are a few key takeaways from the draft guidances:

  • FDA’s initial interpretation of the Cures Act provision related to clinical decision support (CDS) software may lead to a fairly narrow carve-out—in other words, many cutting-edge CDS software functions could remain subject to FDA regulation.
  • FDA’s draft guidances do not directly address dynamic digital health solutions, such as those that incorporate machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), or blockchain.
  • FDA has proposed an enforcement discretion approach for decision support software aimed at patients that generally parallels the regulatory approach for CDS software aimed at clinicians, even though patient decision software was not addressed directly in the Cures Act.
  • Consistent with the Cures Act, FDA’s draft guidances reflect that many of the software functions that were previously subject to FDA enforcement discretion (i.e., not actively regulated as devices) no longer meet the definition of “device.”
  • Significant for pharmaceutical companies, CDER joined one of the draft guidances, and that draft guidance makes clear that other FDA requirements may apply to digital health products disseminated by or on behalf of a drug sponsor beyond those outlined in the draft guidance.

FDA’s regulatory approach has a significant impact on the investment in and development of digital health solutions across the digital health ecosystem. Stakeholders should consider submitting comments to the agency to help shape the direction of FDA’s final guidances on these topics.Continue Reading FDA Outlines Updated Approach to Regulating Digital Health Technologies

On November 14, lawyers from Teva Pharmaceuticals and Covington & Burling discussed digital health innovation from a medical device regulation perspective in the U.S. and the EU. The presentation by Rachel Turow, Executive Counsel – Regulatory Law, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Grant Castle, Scott Danzis, Sarah Cowlishaw, and Christina Kuhn of
Continue Reading The Evolving FDA and EU Equivalent Regulation of Digital Health: A Device Perspective