Device groups agree on user-fee remedy?

AdvaMed will consider seeking legislative action to stem the rate of user fee increases, the association says, following FDA's formal announcement of a 15.7% jump in PMA fees for FY 2005. The notice will be published in the Aug. 2 1Federal Register. Coupled with the 35% rise in FY 2004 user fees, "the 2005 increase...set[s] a pace that cannot be maintained," AdvaMed contends July 30. The Medical Device Manufacturers Association, a longstanding critic of MDUFMA's fee-increase structure, intensified its push for legislative changes soon after the 2004 fees were unveiled. Enacted rates, based on a full-fee PMA charge of $239,237, will be identical to those proposed at the July 15 quarterly MDUFMA meeting (2"The Gray Sheet" July 19, 2004, p. 3)...