Covidien CEO Joe Almeida Lays Out To-Do List for New Role as AdvaMed Board Chair

Work to improve FDA performance, including “continued progress to improve timeliness of FDA reviews.” Almeida said MDUFA III was a “breakthrough” and that the association will work to continue that progress. 

Push for pro-innovation tax reform, including repeal of the medical device tax. 

Pursue global harmonization of regulations. Almeida said opportunities in emerging markets cannot be ignored but that “gaining access to these markets remains one of the industry’s greatest challenges.” He said AdvaMed is committed to the goal of uniform submission requirements and is also working to ensure countries around the world don’t institute conflicting unique device identification requirements. 

Promote AdvaMed’s code of ethics around the world, which Almeida said will “help ensure healthcare decisions are made in the best interest of patients” and will allow “companies of all sizes to compete fairly.” In particular, the trade association has been focusing its efforts on Latin America. Almeida attended AdvaMed’s first Latin America Compliance Conference in São Paulo in February, which resulted in a memorandum of understanding with three Brazilian device associations to harmonize ethics. “The ability to create codes across the globe that are unified or at least similar will make the job and interaction with industry much more productive,” Almeida said.