Using the monocyte activation test as a stand-alone release test for medical devices

Monocyte activation tests (MAT) are widely available but rarely used in place of animal-based pyrogen tests for safety assessment of medical devices. To address this issue, the National Toxicology Program Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods and the PETA International Science Consortium Ltd. convened a workshop at the National Institutes of Health on September 18-19, 2018. Participants included representatives from MAT testing laboratories, medical device manufacturers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiologic Health (CDRH), the U.S. Pharmacopeia, the International Organization for Standardization, and experts in the development of MAT protocols. Discussions covered industry experiences with the MAT, remaining challenges, and how CDRH's Medical Device Development Tools (MDDT) Program, which qualifies tools for use in evaluating medical devices to streamline device development and regulatory evaluation, could be a pathway to qualify the use of MAT in place of the rabbit pyrogen test and the limulus amebocyte lysate test for medical device testing. Workshop outcomes and follow-up activities are discussed.