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The Panel was convened in the Grand Ballroom of the Gaithersburg Hilton Hotel, 620 Perry Parkway, Gaithersburg, Maryland at 8:00 a.m., Dr. Robert L. McCauley, Acting Chair, presiding.
ROBERT L. McCAULEY, M.D. Acting Chair
DAVID KRAUSE, Ph.D. Executive Secretary
MICHAEL J. MILLER, M.D. Voting Member
DEBORAH M. BROWN Industry Representative
CHRISTINE MOORE Consumer Representative
BRENT A. BLUMENSTEIN, Ph.D. Temporary Voting Member
JOSEPH V. BOYKIN, Jr., M.D. Temporary Voting Member
MARY H. McGRATH, M.D., M.P.H. Temporary Voting Member
AMY E. NEWBURGER, M.D. Temporary Voting Member
CELIA WITTEN, Ph.D., M.D. FDA
Call to Order 4
Conflict-of-Interest and Opening Remarks 4
Dr. David Krause, Executive Secretary
Panel Introductions 7
Dr. Robert L. McCauley, Acting Chairman
Update Since the Last Meeting 9
Mr. Stephen P. Rhodes, Branch Chief,
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Devices Branch
Open Public Comments 11
Letters Read into the Record 11
Dr. David Krause, Executive Secretary
Dr. Alastair Carrothers 15
Dr. Diane Zuckerman 18
Applicant Presentation 24
Dr. Floyd Larson 24, 41
Dr. Gottfried Lemperle 27
Dr. William Wustenberg 33
Dr. Paul Clopton 46
Dr. Steven Cohen 60
Panel's Questions and Answers 66
C-O-N-T-E-N-T-S (Continued)
FDA Presentation 86
Introduction 86
Dr. Charles Durfor
Review of the Safety and Effectiveness
Clinical Trials 92
Dr. Binita Ashar
Statistical Review by FDA 112
Ms. Phyllis Silverman
Panel Deliberations and Address 122
of FDA Questions
Reading of the Questions 122
Dr. Charles Durfor
Question-and-Answer Period 125
Presentation by Dr. Amy Newburger 131
Presentation by Dr. Brent Blumenstein 134
Discussion of Question No. 1 138
Discussion of Question No. 2 141
Discussion of Question No. 3 147
Discussion of Question No. 4 150
Discussion of Question No. 5 160
Open Public Comments 163
Dr. Elizabeth Nagelin-Anderson 163
Dr. Diane Zuckerman 167
Concluding Panel Deliberations and Vote 172
8:03 a.m.
DR. KRAUSE: I thank all you souls for braving the weather and for coming here today. I would like to start the meeting.
I have a couple of statements that I have to officially read into the record before we can start. The first one of those is what we call the conflict of interest, and the second one is the deputization to temporary voting status.
Some of this is for this afternoon's portion of the meeting as well. So you may hear names that you don't see up here.
The following announcement addresses conflict-of-interest issues associated with this meeting and is made a part of the record to preclude even the appearance of an impropriety:
To determine if any conflict existed, the agency reviewed the submitted agenda and all financial interests reported by the Committee participants. The conflict-of-interest statutes prohibit special government employees from participating in matters that could affect their or their employer's financial interest. However, the agency has determined that participation of certain members and consultants, the need for whose services outweighs the potential conflict of interest involved, is in the best interest of the government.
We would like to note for the record that the agency took into consideration certain matters regarding Dr. Steven Solomon. Dr. Solomon reported past interests with a firm at issue but unrelated to the pulmonary tumor topic. The agency has determined he may participate fully in this discussion. Since he reported a personal interest that involved firms at issue for the emphysema clinical trial discussion, he has been excluded from that discussion.
In the event that the discussions involve any other products or firms not already on the agenda for which an FDA participant has a financial interest, the participant should excuse him or herself from such involvement, and the exclusion will be noted for the record.
With respect to all other participants, we ask, in the interest of fairness, that all persons making statements or presentations disclose any current or previous financial involvement with any firm whose products they wish to comment upon.
The second statement is the appointment to temporary voting status. It is a document that is signed by Dr. David Feigal, who is the Director for the Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
"Pursuant to the authority granted under the Medical Devices Advisory Committee charter, dated October 27, 1990, and as amended on August the 18th, 1999, I, Dr. Feigal, appoint Brent Blumenstein, Joseph Boykin, Jr., Mary McGrath, and Amy Newburger as voting members of the General and Plastic Surgery Devices Panel for this meeting on February 28th, 2003. In addition, I appoint Dr. Robert McCauley as Acting Chairman for the duration of this meeting."
I would like to also say that there's going to be some members this afternoon who are not regularly members of this panel, but they don't need to be deputized since there's no vote for this afternoon.
At this point I would like to turn the meeting over to Dr. McCauley.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Good morning. I'm Dr. Robert McCauley. I'm Professor of Surgery in pediatrics at the University of Texas Medical Branch and Chief of the Plastic Surgery Services for the Shriners Burns Hospital, and I'm Acting Chairman for this meeting.
Today the Panel will be making recommendations to the Food and Drug Administration on pre-market approval application and regarding clinical concerns involving two classes of medical devices: those intended to treat emphysema and those intended for ablation of lung tumors.
The next item of business is to introduce the Panel members who have given of their time to help the FDA in these matters and FDA staff here at this table. I'm going to ask each member to introduce himself or herself, stating his or her specialty, position, title, institution, and his or her status on the Panel, starting to my near left.
DR. McGRATH: Sorry, I thought he said, "far left."
I'm Dr. Mary McGrath. I'm from the University of California, San Francisco. I'm Professor of Surgery in the Division of Plastic Surgery, and I'm serving on this Panel as a deputized member today.
DR. MILLER: I'm Michael Miller. I'm a Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Center, and I am a Panel member.
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: I'm Brent Blumenstein. I'm a biostatistician as a private consultant now, previously Professor of Biostatistics at Duke University.
DR. BROWN: I'm Debera Brown. I'm the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs from Broncus Technologies in California, and I'm a regular member of the Panel.
MS. MOORE: My name is Christine Moore. I am a consumer member, the former Dean of Students for the Baltimore City Community College in Baltimore.
DR. WITTEN: Dr. Celia Witten, Division Director of the Division of General, Restorative and Neurological Devices at FDA.
DR. BOYKIN: I'm Dr. Joseph Boykin. I'm a Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond and Medical Director of the Wound Healing Center for HCA Retreat Hospital. I'm a voting member of the Panel.
DR. NEWBURGER: I'm Dr. Amy Newburger. I'm a dermatologist in private practice in New York. I have a teaching appointment at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Medical Consortium, and I'm an attending physician at White Plains Hospital. I'm a temporary voting member of the Panel.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: I would like to note for the record that the voting members present constitute a quorum, as required by 21 CFR Part 14.
The Panel will now hear an update of activities related to the General and Plastic Surgery Devices Panel since the time of its last meeting in July of 2002. The update will be presented by Mr. Stephen Rhodes, the Branch Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Devices Branch in the Division of General, Restorative, and Neurologic Devices. Mr. Rhodes.
MR. RHODES: Thank you, Mr. McCauley, and good morning.
I am Stephen Rhodes, the Branch Chief of the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Devices Branch here at the FDA. Welcome, members of the Panel, members of the public, and manufacturers to this one-day meeting of the General Plastic Surgery Panel.
This Panel last met on July 8th and 9th, 2002, at which time you recommended that an unclassified device, silicone elastomer, for scar management, be classified as a Class 1 Device.
On the second day, you heard an update on the conditions of approval for two saline-filled breast implant PMAs. Since that time, on December 19th, 2002, the agency released a Class 2 Special Controls Guidance for surgical sutures. On February 11th, earlier this month, the agency released an updated guidance document entitled, "Guidance for Saline, Silicone Gel, and Alternative Breast Implants."
Today you will make recommendations on a pre-market approval application for an injectable wrinkle treatment device, and in the afternoon there will be a discussion regarding clinical trial issues for devices designed for the treatment of patients with emphysema and devices designed for ablation of pulmonary tumors.
Panel members, we appreciate your participation. Members of the public who have requested time to address the Panel, we appreciate your comments, and, manufacturers, we appreciate your presentations to the Panel and answering questions that the Panel may have.
We thank all of you for rearranging your schedules. I know some of you changed your schedules to accommodate yesterday's snowstorm, and thank you for your attention.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: We will now proceed with the first public comment session of this meeting. All persons addressing the Panel, please speak clearly into the microphone, as the transcriptionist is dependent upon this means of providing an accurate record of this meeting.
We are requesting that all persons making statements during the open public hearing session of this meeting disclose whether they have financial interest in any medical device company. Before making your presentation to the Panel, in addition to stating your name and affiliation, please state the nature of your financial interest, if any, and disclose if anyone besides yourself paid for your transportation or accommodation.
Any comments, Dr. Krause?
DR. KRAUSE: Before the people who are scheduled to speak get up and speak, there's a few letters that were sent to me which ask that I read them into the record. So I'm going to do that now.
The first letter is from a Dr. Robert Keller:
"To Whom It May Concern: Please be advised that my practice consists of many patients seeking cosmetic and anti-aging medical procedures and treatments. As such, I feel qualified to comment on Artecoll and its potential use in my area of expertise.
"My patients are now demanding a longer-lasting filler and enhancer. They are educated and know European markets have these products. As of this writing, I have over 50 patients on a waiting list to use a longer-lasting filler like Artecoll.
"My patients have been asking me for years why longer-lasting fillers are not yet available in the United States, and for this reason many patients are leaving my practice to obtain their injections in Europe. As our Institute claims to be a world center and offering the latest treatments, you can appreciate the embarrassment of this situation.
"There is definitely a tremendous need for longer-lasting, injectable fillers such as Artecoll. This would also capture many patients who do not currently use fillers because they do not want repeated short-term treatments.
"I would like to request that this letter be read in open public session of the meeting. Also, please note that I do not have any financial interest in the sponsor of the PMA application. Please feel free to contact me if I can be of further assistance."
This is letter is by Kathy Rose Herschorn:
"As you know, I'm a 48-year-old mother with children ages 9 and 12. We got a little late start and are older than our peers with similar-aged children. Prior to my treatment with Artecoll, my children would ask why I always looked tired and if I was mad. Following the Artecoll injections and now I am not met with such questions.
"In my opinion, this treatment has taken ten-plus years off my face, to which I am ecstatic. I look at the laugh lines of my peers and am so grateful to have had the opportunity of being treated with Artecoll by such a proficient and efficient physician, you." This is addressed to a Dr. Hamilton.
"And a note about my husband Jack, who is 57. He would look in the mirror and be depressed by the same lines. Since his treatment, he is generally a happier guy, as he really looks in his forties and has had a psychological shift in his self-image."
This is by a Marilyn Kwolek, M.D. to David Krause:
"I am writing this letter to support the application of Artecoll, which I believe will be a valuable alternative for patients seeking a longer-lasting injectable solution for soft tissue augmentation than is currently available.
"I have been in private practice in northern California for over 18 years and have traditionally been one of the top ten injectors nationwide in bovine collagen and was recently selected as a national training center for Botox.
"Many of my current patients who endure frequent injections every two or three months for" ‑‑ I can't pronounce that ‑‑ "correction and the currently-approved bovine and human collagen offerings have been asking for a safe, longer-lasting alternative, as they are growing weary of existing short-term correction options.
"I, myself, have had soft tissue correction for some 15-plus years and have been looking for a safe, more permanent tissue filler material that will provide an answer for myself, my patients, and the aging population that is demanding a safe, more long-lasting solution to soft tissue augmentation.
"I have no financial interest in the sponsor of this PMA application."
This is a letter by Joanna Easton and it's addressed to the FDA:
"This letter is to confirm that I was a part of the Artecoll study in May of 2000. I have had a great, long-lasting result from the Artecoll injections and have been very pleased with the way my smile lines have been smoothed.
"You have my permission to read this letter in the meeting as part of the patients' testimonials."
This is a letter by Dorene Mendelson:
"I participated in the 1998 Artecoll trials conducted by Dr. Douglas Hamilton in Woodland Hills, California. I was a 53-year-old then and had been receiving collagen injections for over 10 years to eliminate smile lines. Collagen was becoming cost-prohibitive, as it only lasted about a month.
"I was highly motivated to participate in the Artecoll trials because I was seeking a longer-lasting product. I had three injections of Artecoll and had no pain, bruising, or other side effects. The plumping effect was excellent and for the nasolabial area, and is evident today, five years later.
"I feel very strongly that Artecoll should be approved."
That's it.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: We will begin with those individuals who have notified the FDA of their request to present in the open session. The first presenter is Alastair Carrothers.
DR. CARROTHERS: Good morning. My name is Alastair Carrothers. I'm a Clinical Professor in Dermatology at the University of British Columbia. I'm a member of the Artes Medical Advisory Board. My expenses and fee have been paid for me to attend this meeting today.
My practice is now largely cosmetic with a major research focus, perhaps largely as a result of my wife and my initiation of the cosmetic use of Botox.
I became aware of Artecoll and Dr. Lemperle's work as a result of a literature search that I did in 1996. I contacted him at that time, and we have maintained an intermittent communication since then.
Subsequently, I put the current Canadian distributor of Artecoll, CANDERM, into contact with the master distributor, Rofil, in Holland. Artecoll was, as you are aware, approved in Canada in September of 1998. We received the test syringes; I actually began injecting in October 1998.
In 1998, I was fortunate to be invited to a large meeting in Frankfurt as a lecturer and demonstrator, and had the opportunity to contact the many experienced European injectors. I was able to discuss Artecoll and its use, the techniques of its use, at that time and benefit from their experience.
Subsequently, I was involved in the initial training of the many Canadian users or injectors of Artecoll. I have now injected many syringes myself over a period of approximately four-and-a-half years. As you probably also are aware, we have approximately 16 or 17 different injectable, augmenting agents approved and available in Canada, of which it's my belief that Artecoll is perhaps the ‑‑ certainly one of the most widely used.
What is my experience as a result of this? Firstly, Artecoll is outstandingly safe. I have seen no significant adverse events in the subjects that I have injected. I have had no reactions at all in the nasolabial folds, clavella, or in areas of acne scarring. I have had one subject with a temporary lump in the lip which resolved at three months without any treatment.
So what about the reports of lumps in lips that you may have seen in the media emanating out of Canada? Firstly, I would emphasize that they are almost all lumps in lips. Secondly, it is my belief that this is very technique-dependent and is, therefore, to some extent at least avoidable.
But, perhaps most important of all, they do appear to resolve either with time, with injectable steroids, Triamcinolone Acetonide, or, occasionally, if necessary, minor surgery.
I have not seen or heard of any late inflammatory granulomas except in one or two individuals who had been treated with a multiplicity of different injecting agents and, therefore, the causative agent would be in doubt.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Carrothers, you have five minutes. So can you wrap up your comments?
DR. CARROTHERS: My conclusions, Mr. Chairman: Artecoll is a major improvement and it does offer genuine, long-term correction.
Secondly, the collagen absorption provides built-in safety, and, thirdly, the adverse events are minor and easily managed. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Thank you.
The second presenter we will hear from is Dr. Diane Zuckerman.
DR. ZUCKERMAN: Thank you very much. My name is Dr. Diane Zuckerman, and I'm President of the National Center for Policy Research for Women and Families, which is a think tank dedicated to using research information to improve the health of women, children, and families.
Our Center has great respect for the important work of the FDA, and we look to this Advisory Panel to help the FDA in its mission to protect the health and safety of women and men across the country.
As an aging baby-boomer, I think it would be wonderful if I could look 10 years younger, not so angry, not so tired, and do that on a permanent basis easily and safely, but as an epidemiologist, if asked if Artecoll is a safe product, based on the data that you're going to be hearing today, I would have to respond it depends on what you mean by "safe."
There's about a 16 percent chance of an adverse reaction in the first year, and there are no data presented after that. Based on published medical journal articles, which I have brought today, and talking to physicians who have used the product, and talking to many hundreds of women who have had cosmetic procedures, I'm very concerned about the long-term risks.
I have copies of a statement made by the Swiss Society for Dermatology, the Swiss Society for Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, and the Swiss Society for Aesthetic Medicine. All three medical societies advise against the use of permanent implants, such as Artecoll and silicone, for use in the face. Theirs is a very strong statement, and I brought copies for you.
I have also brought copies of just three of many medical journal abstracts describing case studies of women whose Artecoll injections caused granulomas that resulted in unsightly bumps on their face. In one case these bumps appeared suddenly, more than five years after the procedure.
I also have a letter from Dr. Michael Weinberg, former President of the Ontario Society of Plastic Surgeons, who describes a survey that he did of the Society's members regarding Artecoll, and he personally told me yesterday that the better plastic surgeons in Ontario are avoiding Artecoll because their use for lip augmentation resulted in so many unsightly lumps and bumps on their face, and most, he said, had to be surgically removed.
For more than a dozen years, I have received letters from women asking for help in dealing with the sequelae of cosmetic procedures. Many of these women were very happy with the results for the first few years, but after that they had cosmetic problems that ranged from embarrassing to truly hideous.
Of course, they never were told that no long-term studies had ever been conducted on the implant or the product that they happened to use, and they never imagined that ‑‑ what they had been told was a very small chance, and you've just heard from one physician; he says a perfectly safe product. They were never told that there was a very small chance ‑‑ they never thought that it would result in a bad reaction for them.
Many of these women now can't afford to have surgery to correct their cosmetic disaster, and some ask us for help: How can they get free medical help? And others ask us to make sure that other women will never have to go through what they went through, and that's why I am here today to represent them.
And I forgot to say I have no conflicts of interest at all. Sorry about that.
The studies presented today are small studies of just a few hundred women and men followed for one year. If this product is approved, it will be used on tens of thousands of people, at least, and yet we really have no idea what these long-term effects might be on them in two or three or four or ten years ‑‑ this is a permanent product ‑‑ in their face.
Cosmetic products are very popular and doctors tell us that people want them, and that they are willing to take risks. But if they are disfigured a few years later, that will be the responsibility of the FDA and this Panel.
We can't expect patients or even physicians to understand the risks of a cosmetic procedure that has the seal of approval of the FDA. Unfortunately, the approval of Artecoll for even one use, as you know, would result in many other uses of the product in the face.
The FDA can't regulate off-label uses, and, of course, it can't stop the use by physicians who are not as skilled, whose technique is not as good. So what is shown as a 16 percent adverse reaction rate in the study presented today, which we all know is done by the best physicians that the manufacturer could find, that rate is bound to be much higher when used off-label and when used by less-skilled and less-well-trained physicians.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Zuckerman ‑‑
DR. ZUCKERMAN: Yes, I'm almost done. Thank you.
And so in your deliberations today, I ask you to consider if the cosmetic benefits, as described in the research, really outweigh the risks. Would you want someone that you love to use this, based on such small samples and such a short followup? And please remember that there are alternatives available that are not permanent. So even though they have risks, those risks are not permanent.
The fact that the Canadian and Swiss doctors who have used this product have already started to avoid Artecoll should be a warning for us. There's no urgent need to approve this product, and so I strongly recommend that you require longer-term research to get a better sense of what the long-term risks are before making any decision to put this on the market. And I have copies of my material.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Thank you.
DR. KRAUSE: Dr. Zuckerman, can you give the copies of that material to the people outside at the table?
DR. ZUCKERMAN: Outside?
DR. KRAUSE: Yes.
DR. ZUCKERMAN: Okay, sure, I'll be happy to do that. I should just say that this Swiss official comment from the Swiss Medical Societies was translated not by me, but I believe that it is accurate. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Is there anyone else wishing to address the panel?
[No response.]
Since there are no other requests to speak to the open public hearing, we would now proceed with the open Committee discussion.
I would like to remind public observers at this meeting that, while this portion of the meeting is open to public observation, public attendees may not participate except at the specific request of the Panel.
We are now ready for the sponsor's presentation.
DR. LARSON: Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the Panel, FDA staff, and guests. My name is Floyd Larson. I am from PaxMed International, a medical device, regulatory consulting, and clinical trials management firm. I am a paid consultant to Artes Medical, the sponsor of the PMA application under discussion today, and Artes paid for my transportation and housing.
We're delighted to be here today to present the culmination of development and pre-clinical evaluation, 10 years of non-U.S. clinical experience, and a controlled, randomized, multicenter, clinical trial conducted in the United States.
The device under discussion has been known as Artecoll during its development and the studies that will be presented. However, it will be marketed under the name Artefill, but in most cases today we use Artecoll as a matter of convenience. All of the review material that you've seen is as Artecoll.
This is an outline of our presentation. I will briefly introduce the product, giving a brief description of it, and then Dr. Gottfried Lemperle will present the background on its development, his experience in his own clinical practice outside the United States, and a summary of other experience outside the United States.
Dr. William Wustenberg then will present the pre-clinical studies, and then I'll introduce the clinical trial, focusing mostly on the pivotal clinical study.
Paul Clopton, our statistician, will present the results of the clinical trial, and Dr. Steven Cohen, one of the investigators, will present his perspective on the use of the device and on the results of the trial, and then we'll summarize.
First of all, this is just briefly a description of the device. It consists of polymethyl methacrylate microspheres with a very smooth surface and uniform size, 30 to 42 microns in diameter, suspended in a bovine collagen carrier, and the collagen contains three-tenths percent lidocaine.
This is an example of the microspheres, smooth and uniform in size, and this shows the packaging that would be utilized if it is approved in the United States.
Now, just very briefly, some background. Rofil Medical, a Dutch firm, began distribution of Artecoll in Europe in 1994 and obtained the CE Mark in 1996 and has marketing rights worldwide, excluding the United States.
Artes Medical, the sponsor of the PMA application, was founded in April 1999 and conducted the pivotal controlled, randomized, multicenter U.S. clinical trial.
Very briefly, if you can see all this, this is a summary of the manufacturing process. It's quite simple. It is a matter of taking PMMA microsphere raw material, cleaning and sieving them to that uniform smooth particle that you saw, terminally sterilizing with ethylene oxide.
Then the collagen component, first of all, is sourced from U.S. hides, and is processed with lidocaine water for injection. The two are then combined in an aseptic process involving syringe-filling and packaging.
Now I am pleased to present Dr. Gottfried Lemperle, the inventor of Artecoll, to discuss both the background on its development, his 10 years of clinical experience outside the U.S., and information on the clinical experience of others.
DR. LEMPERLE: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Gottfried Lemperle. I'm a plastic surgeon at the University of California in San Diego. Before I took this position, I was Head of Plastic Surgery and Professor at the University of Frankfurt in Germany for 25 years. I am the inventor of Artecoll and serve as a scientific officer of Artes Medical.
When injectable collagen which came as a new treatment option for facial wrinkles was introduced in 1981, dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and their patients soon became aware that its effect only lasted for a few months. Unfortunately, all biological fillers, including hyaluronic acid, fat, morselized fascia, or even cartilage and bone, are absorbed over time.
In order to develop a longer-lasting injectable substance, we explored the use of polymerized artificial materials to be added to the collagen. We studied various polymers used in medicine in the rat skin model and found that polymethyl methacrylate, PMMA, microspheres contained in commonly-used bone cement, caused the least foreign body reaction, yielding a low number of foreign body giant cells. We suspected that this was due to the round shape of the microspheres and their smooth surface.
This graph, it's a little bit difficult to understand, but it summarizes the results of scans of histological images of Artecoll implants over a period of three years. Artecoll contains only 20 percent of PMMA microspheres and 80 percent of collagen solution, which is absorbed within one to two months.
Most of the restorative effect of the patient is due to host connective tissue production. The PMMA microspheres act as a scaffold for connective tissue in-growths around the spheres. We estimate that the final implant in situ consists of 80 percent autologous connective tissue and only 20 percent of microspheres.
Our first-generation product, Arteplast, which was used as a self-tissue filler in Europe between 1989 and 1994, was sieved from bone cement using a nylon mesh. In addition to PMMA microspheres larger than 20 microns, Arteplast also contains smaller particles suspected of causing foreign body reactions.
Three retrospective clinical surveys were conducted on the first-generation product, Arteplast, between 1989 and 1994, involving a total of 505 respondents with 900 age wrinkles. The rate of satisfaction was consistently high. However, the rate of side effects was unacceptably high as well. Also, there were inconsistencies among the surveys in the definition of adverse events. These reports confirmed the need for improvement of product quality. In fact, there are several reports from Europe of foreign body granuloma formation associated with Arteplast and other permanent filler substances.
This slide shows the most pronounced Arteplast granuloma that we encountered. They appeared at all injected sites at the same time and responded promptly to interlesional corticosteroid injections. In general, this positive effect of corticosteroids is lean since occurrences are rarely reported.
For the second-generation, named Artecoll, quality was improved substantially by changing the PMMA processing. Nylon sieves were changed to metal sieves to eliminate static electricity, and extensive washing steps were added. This resulted in clean, uniform-in-size PMMA microspheres and a refined purity and led to a greater reduced incidence of side effects.
In 1994, the Dutch company, Rofil Medical International, started non-U.S. distribution of the new formulation Artecoll. Rofil Medical conducted a retrospective marketing survey of 18 physicians, covering more than 5,000 patients in 12 countries.
Reported serious adverse events were 0.6 percent, mainly small, benign nodules in the wet mucosa of the lips. The physicians reported that the treatment was effective in 99 percent of patients and that 94 percent of patients were satisfied.
The second retrospective marketing survey of Rofil Medical was completed recently, covering more than 14,000 patients in nine countries, involving 74 physicians. Serious adverse events were reported for 1.7 percent of patients, again mainly small nodules in the lips, an indication not included in our clinical trial. Physicians' effectiveness rating was 97 percent and patient satisfaction was 95 percent.
I have been collecting all side effects reported to Rofil Medical by physicians and Artecoll distributors from 1994 to 2002. Granuloma formation has been the most serious complication after Artecoll implantation. All together, 15 patients with granuloma have been reported.
The treatment of choice of granuloma, which has been reported to occur after injections of collagen and hyaluronic acid at similar rates is interlesional body corticosteroid injections.
This is a rather big table, and here we see the details of the 15 granuloma patients collected between 1994 and 2002. Most of the onsets were between one and three years of the Artecoll plantation. All were successfully resolved, usually with corticosteroids.
Every physician who starts using Artecoll should be aware of the beneficial effects of interlesional steroids. Whether in fibrous lumps in the lips or in clinical granulomas, I have never heard of any long-lasting disfigurement after Artecoll injections.
Most of the other reported side effects were small nodules in the lips, commonly treated with corticosteroids. Other side effects included one anaphylactic shock, which was reported in 1997 in Italy after the eighth injection of Artecoll. The patient was treated successfully with a standard regimen.
One superficial distant skin necrosis occurred in the forehead 5 centimeters above the implantation site in the glabellar frowns, probably unrelated to Artecoll. This necrosis healed spontaneously. It is important to note that no blindness has been reported after Artecoll injections.
Hypertrophic scarring occurred in three Asian patients after Artecoll was implanted intradermally, that is, too, superficial. All three responded well to interlesional corticosteroids.
In contrast to granulomas, lumps in the lips are much more common. They are often not visible in a resting position, but here you see some lumpiness in the right upper lip. Treatment of choice is, again, a corticosteroid injection which can soften and diminish such a result.
At this point we do not have a 10-year followup on Artecoll treatments, but here is a 10-year histology of my own skin, showing a normal tissue reaction to Arteplast. The invading fibrous tissue accounts for at least 80 percent of the volume of the implant.
I would like to conclude my presentation with follow-up photographs of two patients. This slide shows a 10-year followup after treatment of nasolabial folds with Arteplast in a 40-year-old patient. She is now 50 years old and shows persistent correction.
This patient tries to draw attention away from her deep radial lip glands by excessive makeup. Artecoll treatment allows her to show her formal lips. Such decreases on the chin, for example, cannot be treated successfully by injectable collagen, by laser resurfacing, or by chemical peels, or even dermabrasion.
Thank you very much for your attention, and I ask Dr. William Wustenberg, our next speaker ‑‑ he will present the pre-clinical studies related to Artecoll. Thank you.
DR. WUSTENBERG: Mr. Chairman and Panel members, the FDA, my name is Bill Wustenberg. I own AlterNet Medical Consulting. My practice is restricted to providing pre-clinical biomaterials, toxicology, and regulatory consulting for medical device manufacturers. As long as I do a good job, they've told me that they're going to actually pay me to be here today. I'm joking, obviously. I am on the Scientific Advisory Board for Artes and have a small equity interest in the company.
The safety of Artecoll was reviewed based off of testing of the finished device itself ‑‑ this is pre-clinical safety ‑‑ its components, and in comparisons to literature-based information to other approved products on the market today. The three components, as you already know, are the atelocollagen, the polymethyl methacrylate, and lidocaine.
To look at the components, the Artecoll collagen is a pepsin-digested, bovine dermally-derived atelocollagen. Based on a review of the available information regarding the character and manufacturing process of Zyderm, which has been on the market, obviously, for quite a number of years and is generally recognized as safe, the Artecoll collagen is, it is pretty reasonable to say that, based off of that type of a review, the safety profiles are very similar.
The primary potential risks associated with bovine dermal collagen have been reviewed through the process of interaction with the agency and our submissions. By far the most commonly-recognized, clinically-recognized safety issue with the dermally-derived collagens are sensitivity.
Sensitivity is a well-known potential side effect associated with most bovine dermally-derived collagen products like Zyderm and Zyplast, Contigen, which is a urethral product. The pre-treatment screening generally is considered to mitigate the potential risk. Human sensitivity testing was performed with the collagen used in Artecoll.
Moving on to the polymethyl methacrylate, PMMA toxicity in general is associated with the MMA content, and the potential toxicity that we looked at very seriously were the sensitization issues, irritation, and carcinogenicity. PMMA has a very long history of safe use, and it is considered to be a very stable, non-biodegradable polymer.
Previous reports of toxicity generally have been related to elevated levels of MMA residuals, not the polymethyl methacrylate itself, the long-chain polymers. That's true generally of most polymeric materials.
Occupational sensitization to PMMA has been reported, and it's associated with orthopedic bone cements and dental acrylic preparations, and there are a few others like acrylic nail preparations, and so forth. Generally, these are exposure to products that are being cured in situ, meaning that the curing process is actually occurring at the time of exposure to the patient and/or the occupational ‑‑ I should say patient/persons that are exposed to it. Most of these reports with the orthopedics have been actually in the people who are preparing the bone cement in the surgical suite.
I did an extensive search trying to find out whether there had been reports of PMMA sensitization in patients who had received total hips and knees, and I found no case reports where that was reported. That doesn't mean that it wouldn't necessarily occur, but it is nowhere in the Pub. Med. that I could poll.
Because the PMMA that is in Artecoll is cured and then goes through extensive washing and manufacturing, its MMA levels are extremely low. Based off of analysis of the product, MMA residuals are somewhere between 3 and 12 micrograms per syringe. That translates to a patient dosage of about .05 to .2 micrograms per kilogram of body weight, which is 15 nanograms to 200 nanograms, and those numbers are getting extremely small. So the dosages from MMA are undoubtedly well below the threshold for sensitization
MMA are not considered to be carcinogenic or genotoxic in humans or animals. That's directly off of the EPA Integrated Risk Information Service website, and based off of the wealth of carcinogenicity study data previously published for PMMA, it is reasonable to conclude that PMMA does not pose an increased cancer risk in Artecoll patients.
The third component, obviously, is the lidocaine. It is the same concentration as is in Zyderm and Zyplast, and it has a pretty well-understood risk profile.
The finished product testing that was done was compliant with ISO10993. The product was found to be nontoxic by a direct contact cytotoxicity assay. Interestingly enough, it was also found to be a non-sensitizing agent in the standard Magnuson and Kligman guinea pig maximization method. It was found to be non-mutagenic in the Ames assay, and in the standard rabbit intramuscular implant study it was found to histologically have a similar reaction to the USP negative control polyethylene, which is the industry standard for the negative control. That was at seven days.
There's a limited amount of chronic inflammatory response characterized by infiltration of macrophages, a few macrophages in multinucleated giant cells, typical of a foreign body, of most implant materials, although this is very mild. The injected collagen is absorbed within one to two months and replaced by host connective tissue over the healing period.
This is a photomicrograph of a three-month sample, and you can see, if I can find the button here, the voids here are ‑‑ they are not round anymore because that's a preparation artifact. The actual beads are no longer in there, but that's where they were. But you can see the fine lacing of host connective tissue with fibroblast, some macrophages. There's potentially a few foreign body giant cells in here, but this is well-encapsulated. This fine web, lacy web of fibrous material encapsulated the beads.
This is actually out of a human histology sample that was taken, but it represents at 10 years anyhow what you see, and the voids where the beads were. This is a very mature, quite quiescent implant site. There's a few cells you can see that are round, and it's quite stable at this point in time.
In general, smooth implant surfaces induced far less chronic inflammatory response and its associated fibrosis in comparison to textured surfaces. Obviously, we learned that from the breast implant experience that we've had, too.
The report character of the implant site for Artecoll is consistent with implantation of a smooth surface, non-phagocytosable material.
Next slide. This is just another look at a photomicrograph of the beads. They are relatively consistent in size, and they have a very smooth surface.
The other issue that we wanted to look at was the potential for phagocytosis. Small particles, less than 20 microns, can be phagocytosed by macrophages and foreign body giant cells and may contribute to a magnified, chronic inflammatory response with associated fibrosis. And they may be transported through the lymph system to other organs.
To investigate the association of bead size antihistiocytosis, an in vitro assay was done where macrophage keratinocyte Langerhans cell cultures were exposed to beads, PMMA beads, of 4 to 72 microns in diameter. After exposure, they were looked at both microscopically through cell sorter analysis and then they were evaluated for their secretion of Tissue Necrosing Factor as a potential indicator of cell activation.
The results indicated that beads larger than 20 microns were not phagocytosed. Increased levels of TNF were not observed in any of the PMMA beads, regardless of size, and the results were consistent with other published studies that have been done.
The other issue of transportation from the implant site was one that needed to be evaluated. In this case, preparations of beads ranging from 4 to 100 microns were injected into multiple sites within ICR mice. It was given in subdermal tissues of the cheek and the axilla, groin, periurethrally, and into the quadriceps muscle.
These animals were euthanized at one, three, six, and nine months, and the injection sites and multiple systemic organs were multiply-sectioned and reviewed histologically for evidence of transportation.
Phagocytosis of particles less than 20 microns was observed within the implant site. Four-micron-diameter beads were found in a single axillary lymph node and also in one lung. A single 8-micro bead was found in one lung. No beads were observed adjacent in the tissues, just adjacent to the implant sites themselves. So they weren't dispersing into the tissues from where they were originally placed. It is reasonable to conclude that the PMMA microspheres that have a diameter of 30 to 42 microns don't pose a risk of transportation, based off of this study.
In conclusion, the pre-clinical studies indicate that there's no significant risk of sensitization, irritation, toxicity, carcinogenicity to the patients that receive this. There's no significant risk of product transportation, based off of the studies that were done, and the implant sites apparently have a predictable and consistent minimal foreign body response that then goes on to mature with fibrotic encapsulation of the beads.
Next, Floyd Larson will come and talk about the structure of the clinical trial.
DR. LARSON: I will now comment briefly about an open-label, preliminary study, begun under conditional approval of an IDE application that was submitted by a predecessor organization to today's sponsor, today's applicant.
Rofil Medical USA submitted an IDE application that received conditional approval in 1999 ‑‑ excuse me, yes, in 1997, I'm sorry. The study was an open-label study with no control, conducted under the protocol of November 1997. Because there was no control and because of the management of the study, it was not possible to pool the data with the data from the subsequent controlled study. Efficacy data were not readily obtainable.
So a retrospective study of adverse events was conducted, and data were obtained from 126 subjects at one year or greater followup. This is a summary of the adverse events from this open-label study.
You will note that there was one event which was a protocol deviation, a number of events that were not related to the implant. So the number related to the implant was 12 for the 126 subjects, most of those being mild adverse events.
Now I'll discuss the randomized, controlled, multicenter clinical trial conducted by Artes Medical at eight centers in the United States. Unconditional approval of the IDE that we referred to was granted on September 1st, 1999. The protocol was dated July 30th, and it involved four treatment areas: glabellar frowns, nasolabial folds, radial upper lip lines, and mouth corners.
It was a multicenter study at eight centers, 251 subjects, and a total of 1,334 folds. The study was a six-month controlled study, followed by an evaluation for the Artecoll subjects only at 12 months, primarily a safety evaluation, but efficacy data were collected as well.
The control is the presently-approved products Zyplast and, for the glabellar frowns, Zyderm 2, used according to its labeling. The study was randomized and it was masked. The subjects were masked, and independent evaluators were masked.
There were precautions taken to mask the subjects in terms of masking the syringes, obviously not telling the subjects what they were being treated with, and then all during the followup, even though they were asked the question as to whether or ‑‑ they were asked to guess what they had been given, they were never told until after the six-month evaluation was complete.
These are the eight centers, 12 investigators. You'll notice that they are geographically dispersed and that they include both plastic surgery and dermatology practices.
The inclusion criteria are shown here. Note that there was no specific requirement for the depth of the wrinkle, of the deformity. It was a matter of judgment of the investigator and the subject as to whether that particular area of the face was a subject for the study.
The next two slides show the exclusion criteria. We will pause just a moment so you can read those. I won't read them to you.
Next, this one, the positive skin test, of course, was the most significant exclusion criterion. The principal outcome was based on the Facial Fold Assessment Scale, an extension of the work of Fitzpatrick on laser resurfacing, but intended for the deeper folds of this study.
It uses standardized photographs of the study subjects compared with reference photographs taken at pre-treatment and at each follow-up visit. The scale is validated as part of the study.
For the study evaluations, each of the three independent, Board-certified evaluators was presented with each of over 4,000 photographs in a carefully-randomized fashion, presenting them one photograph at a time. They did not know which treatment group or time period each photo represented, and the evaluators were told only to rate the deepest area of each fold against the reference photographs. That was the extent of the information that they had about what the treatment was.
These are the actual photographs that were used as reference photographs. Let's move through those fairly slowly, so you can get an idea.
The scale is zero to five, a six-point scale. Each of these photographs that the evaluators were seeing as reference photographs was a 4-inch by 6-inch photographic print, the identical size as the photograph of the subject.
The primary objectives were these two. First, is the cosmetic correction provided by Artecoll at the end of a six-month period superior to that provided by the control, and this was based on the FFA Scale rated by three independent masked evaluators. It was a superiority hypothesis against the approved control. Also, the safety of Artecoll versus the control was evaluated, based on adverse event incidents.
Secondary objectives, and important ones, were the initial quality of the cosmetic correction, based on the FAA Scale, and the investigator assessment of success. Note that the investigators were not masked, of course.
The subjects also assessed their own degree of satisfaction with the results of treatment and, as I pointed out, they were masked. The treatment was not revealed to them until after their six-month evaluation.
Finally, this is the sequence of events in the trial: screening enrollment followed by a blood draw for Serum IgG, and then followed by the skin test, and then the skin test reading, with treatment and retreatment being permitted up to three treatments over a period of a maximum of one month. The follow-up schedule was one, three, and six months for safety and efficacy and twelve months for Artecoll, primarily a safety evaluation.
Now Paul Clopton, our statistician, will present the results of the clinical trial.
DR. CLOPTON: Thank you and good morning. My name is Paul Clopton. I'm a paid statistical consultant supported by Artes to come here. They paid for my travel, time, and meals. In real life I'm a statistician in the Research Service at the VA Medical Center in San Diego.
Next slide, please. These are the results from the clinical trial, first the demographic variables. As you can see, most of the subjects treated were females, and the average age was in the early fifties.
Next. As far as the distribution of facial areas that were treated, the nasolabial folds received the greatest number of treatments. This is the number of subjects treated and the number of folds treated. Treatment is bilateral in almost all cases, although all the folds were rated independently. Mouth corners and glabellar frowns were next most treated, and the upper lip lines were the least-frequently treated.
Next slide, please. As far as attrition, the attrition rate was fairly low through the study. We had 92 percent of the subjects with some follow-up data at six months. We also looked at inter-rater reliability among the three masked observers. Since this was a rating scale, we couldn't use nominal statistics, so this coefficient is intra-class correlation and represents fairly good reliability for all the four facial areas treated.
Next slide, please. Moving on to the safety data, here are the total adverse event counts for Artecoll and control. There were more adverse events in the control group, but the number of subjects experiencing adverse events was slightly greater in the Artecoll group than in the control group. That's, of course, not a statistically-significant difference.
Next slide, please. We also looked at the severity of these adverse events in three categories ‑‑ mild, moderate, and severe ‑‑ and note that the control adverse events tended to be more severe than those detected in the Artecoll group.
Finally, we looked at whether any implant needed removal or drainage. There was very small incidence of this, and it wasn't significant between the groups.
Next slide, please. So the safety conclusion is that the Artecoll treatment was as safe as the collagen control treatment.
Next slide, please. Moving on to the efficacy outcome, the primary efficacy endpoint was the masked observers' ratings of the photographs, using the Facial Fold Assessment Scale. The result yielded a statistically-significant difference between the Artecoll treatment and the control treatment for nasolabial folds. The other three facial areas were not significantly different between the two treatments.
Next slide, please. A secondary endpoint was success as rated by the investigators. Here you can see that the investigators consistently maintained a mean rating that was in the very successful range. That's true for all four facial areas.
By contrast, with the control treatment, their success ratings declined from one to three months, and the difference at three months and six months in all cases was statistically-significant.
Next slide, please. Moving on to the subject satisfaction ratings, we see, again, that the Artecoll treatment yielded averages that are consistently high in the satisfied range across time and across facial areas, and the control group shows a decline, so that it becomes significantly less satisfied than the Artecoll group, both at three months and at six months and across all four facial areas.
Next slide, please. We did a couple of supplemental analyses. The first one here looks at the number of treatment sessions. You will recall they could be treated up to three times over the course ‑‑ I'm sorry, I'm on the wrong slide.
This is an overall improvement used to characterize in the mass observers' ratings of the improvement from one month to three months, to six months. At the one-month observation point, Artecoll and control were not significantly different from each other. By three months, this difference was significant, and by six months, as we heard before, it was significant. These are the overall improvements averaged across all four facial areas.
Next slide, please. We also asked the investigators to rate their patients using the Facial Fold Assessment Scale. The difference here is that the investigators, although they used the criterion photographs, rated the appearance of the wrinkles from the subjects live and in person, rather than from photographs of the subjects. This is the six-month result, and in the investigators' ratings Artecoll was superior to control for all four facial areas.
Next slide, please. So the efficacy conclusion was that, for masked observers, Artecoll was more effective than control for nasolabial folds and not different than control for the other facial sites. In the investigators' ratings Artecoll was superior to control for all facial areas, and in the subjects' satisfaction ratings Artecoll was superior to control for all facial areas.
Next slide, please. Here is the number of treatment sessions that were required. You can see that we have nearly identical number of sessions between Artecoll and control and no significant difference for any facial area.
Next slide, please. However, when we looked at the quantity of product injected, we did see significant differences. There was quite a bit more control material injected than Artecoll. That difference was statistically-significant for all four facial areas.
Next slide, please. In addition to the safety results and the efficacy results that I have covered, there are several issues that developed during the clinical trial, the most important of which I have listed here and will talk about each of those in turn.
Clinically significant, that is, just how big of an effect have we observed here. The opportunity for improvement, this relates to the masked observers' ratings and whether or not subjects had the opportunity to produce a clinically-significant improvement. The effectiveness of the masking of the subjects themselves, and, finally, pre-treatment differences in severity.
Next slide, please. With respect to clinical significance, I'm going to talk about the effects in the nasolabial folds. There are two issues that we need to be aware of here. One is the a priori criterion size, and the other is attempting to characterize just how large the actual observed effect is.
Next slide, please. With respect to the a priori criterion of clinical significance, it was set at one point on the FFA Scale. In the validation study, however, we found that one point on the FFA Scale was equivalent to a 1.4 point difference on the more established Fitzpatrick Scale, leading us to consider the possibility that we set the clinical criterion a little higher than it might have been. In fact, our observed improvement average of .77 points on the FFA Scale would be equivalent to just over one point on the Fitzpatrick Scale.
Next slide, please. Nonetheless, we like to find other ways to try to characterize just how large the effect was that we observed. One of the best-known authors in this regard is Jacob Cohen, who writes about effect sizes and power analyses. One of his ways of quantifying effect size is by the statistic d. If we translate our data into his d statistic, the observed effect is .88 points.
Cohen also establishes criteria for small, medium, and large effects, and his criteria for a large effect is a d of .80. He wants to let us know just what he means by a large effect, so he gives a few examples of what a d of .80 is equal to.
In terms of IQ scores, it's equal to the difference between college graduates and high school students, who run a 50/50 chance of even graduating from high school. In terms of height, a d of .80 is equal to the difference between the average height of a 13-year-old girl and the average height of an 18-year-old girl. By his examples, he's letting us know that a d of .80 represents clearly discernible differences.
Next slide, please. Finally, with respect to the observed effects, here's a graph of the improvement in nasolabial folds that extends on to the 12-month observation point. You can see that there are substantial differences between groups that we've already addressed, a much greater improvement in the Artecoll group.
It is interesting to note that there was even an increase in this improvement rate at 12 months. I have listed the number of subjects at an observation point here because, when first seeing this graph, I thought it might have, this increase might have been due to attrition for the 12-month observation, but that's not the case. In fact, in a non-parametric test this point is different from this point at a .03 p‑value. Also of interest is that the average improvement at 12 months is 0.9, which is pretty close to the original a priori criterion of 1.0 points.
Next slide, please. The second issue is the opportunity for improvement by which I'm really referring to the fact that ratings were made of standardized photographs and pre-treatment severity issues.
Next slide, please. Here we see the distributions in box plot form of the pre-treatment severity ratings made by the masked observers from photographs, as opposed to being made by the investigators with their subjects live and in person. You can see that there is a substantial difference between the severity when rated in these two manners.
The box plot presents the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of the distributions in the boxes. Note that the 75th percentile, by the observers' ratings, is not much different than the 25th percentile by the investigators' rates. So these differences are very substantial.
The other thing to consider, though, is that if the subjects were to have opportunity to show clinical significance, as defined a priori, they would have to improve or reduce in severity by one point. Some of these subjects down here don't even have the opportunity to improve by one point. They would have to be better than perfect, and so that result was unavailable to several of them in the masked observer ratings.
Next slide, please. This is a pretty busy table, but this kind of quantifies that effect that I was just trying to illustrate. If you look at the masked observer data, subjects in the impossible to clinically-improved category, meaning they started out with an initial severity of less than one point, about a third of the subjects fell into that group. It varied a little from one area to the next.
Then we have a category called "unlikely," where the initial rating was between one point and two points, and about a third of the subjects fell in that category also.
Finally, those labeled "possible," the number of subjects who started out at least at 2.0 or higher in pre-treatment severity that had a reasonable opportunity to improve by one point, and only about a third of the subjects fell in that category. By contrast, in the investigators' pre-treatment ratings, almost none of the subjects fell into this "impossible" category.
The next slide, please. If we look only at those subjects whose masked observer pre-treatment severity was two points or greater on the FFA Scale, we see that the mean improvement in the Artecoll group at six months was 1.38 points, which was superior to the control improvement, and that difference was significant.
Likewise, the proportion of this subset of subjects that improved one point or more at six months in the Artecoll group was 71 percent, compared to 24 percent in the control group, and that difference was significant.
Next slide, please. The third issue concerns the effectiveness of masking of the subjects themselves. Subjects were asked at one month, three months, and six months which of the treatment conditions that they thought they were in. We counted up and figured out how many correctly guessed their treatment condition and how many were incorrect. They weren't told whether they were correct or not until the end of the study period.
The reason that this is of concern, of course, is for any opportunity for potential bias in the subject's satisfaction ratings. As related to that, we want to look at the relationship between the subject's satisfaction ratings and the investigators' ratings, since that might be the point of bias.
Next slide, please. These are the results for the guessing questions. At one month it was virtually 50/50. The subjects were not correctly guessing which treatment they were in. However, they were more correct at three months and even more correct at six months.
The issue, then, is whether or not this represents a failure of the masking technique or whether it represents the subjects assuming that they had the Artecoll treatment if they were more satisfied with their treatment and assuming they had the control treatment if they were less satisfied with their treatment.
Unfortunately, we can't have any way of knowing for sure which result is reflected here, but we can attempt to address that question a little bit by looking at the relationship between the subjects' impression and the investigators' impression.
Next slide, please. Here are the correlations between those two sources of information. These are in the moderate range, suggesting that there at least is some room for the subjects' impression not to be a function of the investigators' impression entirely.
Next slide, please. So, again, in terms of the subjects' satisfaction, here illustrated averaged across all facial areas, the difference between Artecoll and control isn't necessarily a function of a masking phenomena.
Next slide, please. The fourth issue concerns pre-treatment differences that were observed between the treatment group in nasolabial severity. The control group started out less severe than the Artecoll group, leading to a potential source of bias in the comparison of the two outcomes.
There are four analyses reported here in an attempt to address this potential source of bias. In the first case, we did analysis of covariants for the masked observer ratings at six months, in which the pre-treatment severity scores were the covariate. The difference between Artecoll and control was still significant.
In the second analysis, we did an analysis of variants, a two-way analysis, which was treatment by pre-treatment block. Subjects were blocked into six groups according to pre-treatment severity, and the superiority of Artecoll over control remains statistically-significant.
Both of these first two analyses are parametric analyses, and there's some concern because the distribution of the severity ratings is non-Gaussian. It's positively skewed, as most pathology ratings are.
The next two techniques are non-parametric. In the first we started out with that subset of patients who had an initial severity at least 1.0. When we looked at that subset, there were no significant pre-treatment differences and yet the Artecoll was still superior in six months' outcome to the controls. All of this is measurement by masked observers.
Finally, the last analysis used a matching technique where subjects were paired with exactly matching pre-treatment scores. Again, we looked at the difference between Artecoll and control non-parametrically, and that difference was statistically-significant.
So we conclude that the nasolabial severity differences at pre-treatment did not alter the conclusions of the study.
Next slide, please. So, in summary, with respect to the issues that I have addressed, with respect to clinical significance, it is evident that the observed effect size is large. With respect to opportunity for improvement, the photographic assessment that utilizes standardized photographs did make it difficult to demonstrate the improvement in some of the subjects.
With respect to masking, we don't have evidence to lead us to be sure that treatment guesses had an effect on the subjects' ratings of satisfaction. Finally, with respect to pre-treatment differences, we found that these differences didn't alter the study's outcomes.
Next slide, please. So overall conclusions from the clinical trial for safety that Artecoll is as safe as the collagen control, and for efficacy that Artecoll was superior to the collagen control in the masked observers' ratings, this was the case for nasolabial folds; in the other areas there were no significant differences. For investigator ratings and subject satisfaction ratings, Artecoll was superior to control for all four facial areas.
Next slide, please. That concludes my presentation. I would like to now introduce Dr. Steven Cohen who will give the investigators' perspective on the trial. Thank you.
DR. COHEN: Mr. Chairman, members of the panel, FDA staff, and guests, my name is Dr. Steve Cohen. I am a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of California, San Diego, and Director of Craniofacial Surgery at the Children's Hospital in San Diego.
I serve as a consultant to Artes. I'm on their Medical Advisory Board, and they paid for my travel and lodging here.
Personally, I also want to say it's nice to be back in my hometown.
Together with my partner, Dr. Ralph Holmes, we represent Study Center No. 6. This morning I would like to give the investigators' perspective.
First slide. The Artecoll injection technique is important. A tunneling technique is used and a deep dermal placement of the material is made just above the subcutaneous tissue. If a second injection is used, this is layered on top of the first one with the same type of tunneling technique.
Next slide. The Facial Fold Assessment Scale was used to grade our results. As Floyd Larson covered earlier, it is a six-point scale based on Fitzpatrick work, and we were able to compare the reference photographs with pre-treatment and photographs at each follow-up interval.
Next slide. This patient typifies the Artecoll patients in the study. Pre-treatment you can note the nasolabial fold and its depth. Following injection, you can see at one month the fold has been effaced, the very nice contour surrounding that, then good persistence of that result at six months.
Next slide. In contrast, this is a control patient receiving collagen to the nasolabial fold. Here's a pre-treatment fold. You can see some effacement of the fold, a little bit of redness in the injection site, and then six months later, as expected, relapse of the nasolabial fold.
Next slide, please. These series of photographs represent some of the adverse events.
Next slide. This is a patient receiving collagen to the glabellar fold, and you can see the pre-treatment and one-month area in the glabellar, perhaps a little bit of redness, and then a sensitivity reaction at three months that was treated by injection of corticosteroids as well as oral corticosteroids, with resolution in this particular area at six months.
Next slide. This is the same patient who has received injections to several sites, including the corner of the mouth and nasolabial fold. Note again the erythematous reaction, which was thought to be a sensitivity reaction to collagen. This was drained in this area. You can see resolution in the more superior aspects of the fold, but still some evidence of sensitivity lower down.
Next slide, please. This is a patient receiving collagen control to the glabellar folds. At one month you can see the streak erythema. This was treated with topical cortisone and resolved for the most part, and you can see a little bit of residual redness at six months.
Next slide, please. This patient received Artecoll to the right glabellar fold area. Here you can see pre-treatment, following treatment. During the course of followup, the patient popped a papule that had developed in this vicinity, leaving a small lesion that was excised. The pathology showed a histologic diagnosis of actinic keratosis, and you can see then resolution with little trace of the excision.
Next slide, please. This is a woman receiving Artecoll to the right corner of the mouth. Here you can see pre-treatment. She developed some erythema that lasted roughly around 13 weeks and, with no treatment, resolved, and for the most part you can see this is gone at six months.
Next slide, please. These are Artecoll adverse events of moderate severity, as reported by the investigators, but were not captured or visible on photographs.
Next slide. This is a patient who had their nasolabial fold injected with Artecoll. On the first of three injections, she reported redness and swelling. You can see that this is largely resolved and not apparent at the one-month followup, and you see at 12 months both a very, very nice result in the fold as well as absence of any erythema.
Next slide, please. This is a patient who received Artecoll to the corner of the mouth, and reported a lump in that region which was treated with a corticosteroid injection. This actually was reported after the first of three injections, and you can see at 12 months there may be a little bit of a trace in that region, but it's hard to detect.
Next slide, please. These are patient examples, again, that are typical of the Artecoll group.
The first slide, please. This is a patient with a very well-established, deep nasolabial fold, receives Artecoll, and then at six months you can see the effacement of the fold and the retention of the results at one year.
Next slide, please. This is a patient receiving Artecoll to the nasolabial folds, the marionette lines and the radial wrinkle lines, and you can see post-treatment at six months, a very nice improvement in the results, and then with excellent persistence of that result at one year.
Next slide. This is a patient who received Artecoll to the glabellar frown areas. Pre-treatment, deep-seated frowns, and six months later you can see the change in the improvement and appearance.
Next slide, please. This is perhaps the most extreme case of nasolabial folds that we saw. This is a very well-established fold, very much like the creases that occur on your shoes. When you would retract the skin, it was a still a very well-established fold. This you can see at one year after injection a nearly complete obliteration of that fold and excellent maintenance of the result at one year.
Next slide. So our clinical impressions were basically that the adverse events were low for both groups. Both collagen and Artecoll had low adverse events. The majority of these were quite mild and short-lived.
Artecoll was clearly superior to collagen in the nasolabial fold, and my clinical impression was that Artecoll was superior to anything I've actually used in the fold area, including facelifts, fat injections, and a variety of other fillers.
I think, in general, then in plastic surgery, especially cosmetic surgery, our goal is our patients' satisfaction and their perception of the results. Since one of the critical aims of this study was to determine patient satisfaction, I think you saw from Paul Clopton's data that this was clearly shown statistically, that Artecoll was superior.
Next slide, please. In summary, Artes Medical has provided reasonable assurance that Artefill, formerly known as Artecoll, is safe and effective for its intended use. Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: We'll let the Panel address the sponsor's presentation, starting with Dr. Newburger. Do you have any questions?
DR. NEWBURGER: I have several questions that I wonder if I could get clarified.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Can we have the presenters sit at the front table, please?
DR. NEWBURGER: My first question would be, I guess, directed to Dr. Wustenberg. Was there any time that the PMMA spheres were cleaved and the amount of methyl methacrylate was recovered from that?
DR. WUSTENBERG: From the standpoint of the methyl methacrylate ‑‑
DR. NEWBURGER: Right.
DR. WUSTENBERG: -- residual analysis?
DR. NEWBURGER: Right.
DR. WUSTENBERG: I don't believe that they were actually found during that analysis. I think that was done by an exhaustive organic solvent extraction. What I can do is actually look at the methodology that was used and get you an answer to that. Because if they do an organic solvent by sohxlet, meaning it is actually under heat, generally, if you do polymerics of this size for a 24-hour period, you've done what would be considered to be an exhaustive extraction of the reachables. Let me confirm what the methodologies were and then I can answer that question.
DR. NEWBURGER: Okay. Also, Dr. Lemperle, you were kind enough to share with us your own personal human histology from the Artecoll implant. Was this implanted in a mobile area?
DR. LEMPERLE: This was implanted in my nasolabial fold, the right fold.
DR. NEWBURGER: Thank you. Were any of the determinations for human IgG taken during the clinical trial specifically directed toward bovine collagen or were they just general IgG?
DR. LARSON: General IgG.
DR. NEWBURGER: Those are my specific questions at this time.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Boykin?
DR. BOYKIN: I would like to raise a couple of questions, starting with some pre-clinical studies, and I'm not sure who would comment on this. But I would like for you to just briefly summarize your experience with the corticosteroid environment or the steroid environment, and how it alters the cyto structure or the encapsulation of the PMMA implant.
DR. LEMPERLE: It is most important to inject, if you have a lump or if you have a granuloma, you inject it intralesionally. You have to stay inside of the nodule. This is important. If you get outside, you know all the side effects of cortisone, the atrophy of skin and of fatty tissue.
So I understand your question correctly, these are crystals which stay for about one month inside of this lump, and they must diminish, they inhibit the fibroplast from producing more, and they inhibit a further growth of these nodules.
DR. BOYKIN: Well, what I'm kind of getting at is, obviously, your exclusion criteria includes the patient's use of corticosteroids within three months. I am assuming that that is to prevent an inadvertent transportation of a sphere, is that correct, or are we talking about problems more locally with the inflammatory response?
DR. LEMPERLE: No, I think the exclusion is more that people under cortisone treatment have a thin skin, and it might be that the implant shows up. But, in general, the reaction of those people is ‑‑ what we want is fibrosis, and the patients under cortisone treatment may not produce so much fibrosis as we need for an 80 percent percentage of fibrosis in our implant. This was an exclusion criteria.
DR. BOYKIN: So for all granuloma formation, you are recommending corticosteroid injection as opposed to excision?
DR. LEMPERLE: Yes, absolutely. I have an experience of 15 granulomas myself in the Arteplast time. This was the reason I almost wanted to stop the whole thing, and then I know about these 15 granulomas and advised, the doctors were advised, to inject cortisone, and I got the return that they all had resolved; that means came to normal.
DR. BOYKIN: The cosmetic effect there, I would imagine, though, is lost, isn't it?
DR. LEMPERLE: Not totally, but it was lost, of course.
DR. BOYKIN: Is it improved?
DR. LEMPERLE: It was improved. I mean, there's 20 percent of beads and another 20 percent, I would say, of connective tissue. So half of the implant should stay if you inject this cortisone.
DR. BOYKIN: You have also mentioned that granuloma formation may be a direct result of improper placement of the needle at the time of injection, is that correct?
DR. LEMPERLE: Yes, that's absolutely correct. I mean all the lumps occurred in the lips, and placement of the needle is ‑‑ we don't recommend lips at all after these bad experiences in Canada and in Switzerland, and wherever. The correct placement is everything, and especially small amounts of implants.
DR. BOYKIN: So the physician experience or training is important ‑‑
DR. LEMPERLE: It's very important.
DR. BOYKIN: -- in the use of this?
DR. LEMPERLE: I mean, I make all these negative experiences and other people shouldn't do this, so training is the most important thing. No one would ever use it without proper training.
DR. BOYKIN: Obviously, these are the kinds of things we are very concerned about.
DR. LEMPERLE: Yes.
DR. BOYKIN: Because once a larger population of physicians begin to use this, if their experience is not ‑‑
DR. LEMPERLE: Right.
DR. BOYKIN: -- if they are perhaps of other types of specialties, or what have you, then we can expect a fairly high incidence of complication?
DR. LEMPERLE: We see the difference between Europe and Canada. Canada had a perfect training, had a perfect setup, and there are very few things, except these lips, that have occurred. In Europe everybody, they used without proper training, and these are the big differences, if you look at the results.
DR. BOYKIN: So are you saying that a physician should be trained here before they use it?
DR. LEMPERLE: Yes.
DR. COHEN: Dr. Boykin?
DR. BOYKIN: Yes?
DR. COHEN: Just to complement that and answer that, as a new user, because I had not been introduced to it until the study, it was very simple to use and very simple to learn to inject. So it was not an onerous process in that regard.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Ms. Moore?
MS. MOORE: Yes, just a couple of questions. I notice that one of the groups of people that would be excluded from this would be those who developed or who were susceptible to keloids. Now we lay people have been told that African-Americans and other darker-skinned people were more susceptible than others. Does this mean, then, that this group of people would be discouraged from this procedure if ‑‑
DR. LEMPERLE: This is a very good question. We all know that Asian and African people have a high susceptibility to keloids. In all these 10 years I have seen three cases of hypertrophic scarring of two superficially-injected Artecoll. These were two Asian patients from Korea. They had it injected only on one side. They developed a keloid because of intradermal injection. The dermis is much more sensitive than the subdermis. We recommend using it deeper.
So it can happen that ‑‑ it's not a keloid. It's a hypertrophic scarring which can occur, which does not grow like a keloid, a hypertrophic scarring. Then the treatment, again, is cortisone, but this is something we have just to tell the doctors: In these patients who are prone to keloid formation, be cautious and go deep.
MS. MOORE: So that's in the physician's instruction then?
DR. LEMPERLE: Physician's instructions, yes.
MS. MOORE: All right. When I read this, I thought about, what is the Dorian Gray effect? Those of you who are older would know what I mean by "Dorian Gray"; the younger ones may not know.
But what happens to the process of aging, what aging to that face as persons get older, and naturally there must be some kind of changes? So with these implants, do they just remain the same? There's no changing, no difference, or anything, as a person gets older?
DR. LEMPERLE: Now my experience is not ‑‑ it is 15 years, and I have, of course, injected many older people, too. The older people don't get the thinner skins in general. They have either genetically thin skin, but the implant will certainly, when the skin loosens and the wrinkling comes back, I mean, of course, after five to ten years of movement of your face and of relaxation of the facial skin, you will get another wrinkle in it, another wrinkling.
So the implant stays where it was. It is embedded in fibrous tissue. It's your own tissue, and it's embedded in the subdermal tissue. I have not seen shining through any implant, and can't imagine that these small amounts may shine through skin.
MS. MOORE: Okay. And, of course, the other thing I don't think you probably have the answer for at this point is, I, too, am concerned about the long-range effect. I remember what happened to women who were getting the breast implants and things of that sort. So I guess you don't have too much of an answer for that particular question at this time.
But I guess your consent form ‑‑ and I didn't see ‑‑ I don't know whether I missed it or not. I didn't see a copy of the consent forms that were used in my material. Perhaps it's there and I missed it. But I was wondering just how much detailed information is given to that patient before a patient would consent for this procedure, and if all of these risks are really clearly explained to them.
DR. LEMPERLE: It is quite a difference between Europe and here in the United States or Canada concerning the consent forms. It is clear that all these granulomas and the numbers will be in the consent. The lady has to know what may harm her in the future.
But I have now 15 years of experience, and I said most of those, almost all those Artecoll granulomas within the first three years, many within one year. Those Arteplast granulomas with the impure, but they occurred later; this is true. So these patients still are better, but these are gone.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Ms. Brown?
DR. BROWN: With respect to the experience you had around the lips, are you planning to put anything in your package insert about caution around the lips?
DR. LEMPERLE: We will certainly put a warning not to inject lips. It is not a problem here on the outside, but as soon as you come close to a muscle, the implant which you apply as a strain, for example, may be pushed together like a ball by the muscle movement. So the lips are too risky with this material.
DR. BROWN: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Blumenstein?
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: As you can imagine, this is an overwhelming amount of material to absorb in a few days. One of the things that happens is that you see things at one place, and then you don't see it in another place and wonder about it.
There were two issues with respect to this scoring that was the masked scoring that I would like to ask about, because I didn't see it in the presentation. The one issue was having to do with the rounding. There was something about rounding scores.
The second was that there was a one-point change criterion that was precommitted to in the protocol, apparently. I would like to know a little bit about why these things aren't talked about here.
DR. CLOPTON: Okay. With respect to the rounding, this was a source of confusion that resulted from one of the tables where we blocked subjects by pre-treatment severity. Because ratings were averaged across raters and bilateral sides, there were fractional point values. So we couldn't make groups based on individual's specific pre-treatment severity levels. So they were put into six blocks, ranges: zero to one, one to two, and so forth, for one particular analysis.
A table was presented in the PMA giving that blocking, which led certain reviewers to the impression that these numbers were actually rounded, but that's not the case. For all the other analyses we used the actual values.
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: What about the one-point criterion?
DR. CLOPTON: The hypothesis under study was whether or not there was a difference in the average response, but, in addition to this, the criterion for clinical significance of 1.0 was stated in the PMA. This wasn't operationally employed in testing any of the hypotheses, but we did quantify the results with respect to improvement rates at that level. The mean improvement rate was 0.77 points, as I said. There are several analyses addressing this in the PMA itself.
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: There was also some issues about whether analysis of variants was valid to be used here, because of the distribution of the raw scores?
DR. CLOPTON: That's correct.
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: As I understand it, most of the analyses of variants were on different scores?
DR. CLOPTON: That's correct.
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: Do you have the same concerns about the violation of assumptions of announced variants when different scores are used?
DR. CLOPTON: I do personally, yes, because if the assumptions are untenable on the raw scores prior to the calculation of the difference, then they're untenable afterwards.
However, there was only really one set of analyses that were parametric, and this was two of the analyses amongst the four that had to do with the pre-treatment differences. The fact that there is concern with the non-Gaussian distributions is why there were analyses devoted to that same issue, two of which were non-parametric.
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: I sure would have liked to have seen some dot plots and other things like that that would have shown the actual score by patients, dot plots or scatter plots or something of that nature.
DR. CLOPTON: Yes, we have some histograms of the pre-treatment distributions, and there were box plots.
But, Floyd, if you could go to extra slide 17 or 18? Yes, that's fine.
Here's a pre-treatment distribution. Okay, this is the pre-treatment distribution for glabellar folds. You can see it's positively skewed, as you might expect.
Could you show the next slide, please? No, go backwards, I guess. There, this is nasolabial folds, also positively skewed. The distributions of the change scores, of course, are much more Gaussian in appearance, but, nonetheless, non-parametrics were used throughout with the exception of the two cases that I mentioned.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Miller?
DR. MILLER: First, I want to compliment on your efforts to be rigorous in looking at a cosmetic procedure which is difficult to be rigorous about. So I think that that's basically good work.
I have some questions for you about your indications. You say it's indicated for the correction of contour deficiencies of soft tissue. Now, from what your presentation is, I think I know what you mean by that, but what exactly do you mean by that?
DR. LEMPERLE: The indications are wide, and the usable of this material is wide for soft tissue defects. It is not meant for an exchange for fat because, if you put it into the cheeks, for example, it is harder. But there are other wrinkles than the nasolabial fold, and there are probably lots of things, and after rhinoplasty, for example, we could use it, if this is what you mean by other indications.
DR. MILLER: Well, for things like lip augmentation or somebody has a traumatic tissue deficiency in their face, and you want to fill this.
DR. LEMPERLE: Now, of course, I did all these indications just to try it. You can use it as a bone ‑‑
DR. LARSON: Not in the U.S.
DR. LEMPERLE: Not in the U.S.
DR. MILLER: So what you're proposing here is a use really restricted to treating wrinkling and deficiencies due to sort of something happening at the dermal level?
DR. LEMPERLE: Yes, yes.
DR. MILLER: And it's a limited-volume tissue replacement is sort of what you're thinking?
DR. LEMPERLE: Right, the amount would be limited, this is correct.
DR. MILLER: Okay. I think it would be in order to clarify that for users.
The other question I had about was the ease of use. This is a permanent implant, and I imagine permanent implants are generally not very forgiving. Collagen, if you make a mistake, it just disappears, but if you inject something permanent, it's there forever until you do something about it. If this is released to broad use, how reliable is it that the surgeons using this will be able to use it properly?
DR. LEMPERLE: The problems mainly occurred in the lips. This is something which we have to address, no question, because it is soft tissue. Wherever you use it in other places, there's hardly any technical defect possible. It's only in the lips, what occurs, and the corners of the mouth, for example, there you find these lumps which were reported.
But in the rest of the nasal folds, especially here, I have never heard of any problem in the glabellar frowns. And this did not occur for every doctor, and most of them are experienced with the collagen, so they know how to inject, but to find the real level and to get a good result with the least amount of product, this is the main reason of training these doctors.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. McGrath?
DR. McGRATH: I had three questions. The first one is I'm a little unclear on the difference between lumpiness and granulomas. It was my impression that granulomas are a histologic process; lumping may just be an overdeposition of the material. I'm not sure that I understand that that has been clarified throughout. I think it would have bearing on the permanency of the changes.
DR. LEMPERLE: That's a very good question. A foreign material injected into a body and excised later on will always give the diagnosis of a foreign body granuloma or foreign body reaction, whatever it is. Now there is a big difference between a normal article implant which consists of these microspheres which are a scaffold to produce fibrosis or to stimulate fibrosis. This is a wanted fibrosis, and there's a difference between the granulomas which I have shown, which occur later, later after months, and they are growing implants. For example, here in the nasolabial fold the women suddenly notice that there is a lump occurring and this lump is growing. So this is a granuloma, to my definition.
The others are foreign body reactions, foreign body granuloma, foreign body reactions. You have to differentiate. One is a stable process. A fibrosis lump in the lip, for example, it stays as a lump, let's say, for life if you don't inject cortisone or excise it.
In a granuloma it reacts well because it is an overreaction of the body, a foreign body reaction. It reacts well to cortisone. You have seen this case. There was one in four weeks the whole thing was gone. So this why I advise very much this cortisone.
But the doctor has to know what can occur, and the patient has to know what can occur.
DR. McGRATH: I guess my question is, I understand that, but I was just wondering if this is how, Dr. Cohen, if this is how the investigators were advised to describe any adverse events, which were granulomas and which were lumpiness.
DR. COHEN: Typically, a granuloma was reported if there was associated redness with a lump. If a lump was there with no evidence of inflammation, it was reported as a contour irregularity or a lump.
But I have to agree with Gottfried, and I'm sure you would feel the same way, it's very difficult to get a pathologic diagnosis other than a granuloma when there's any foreign body anywhere. But, clinically, these behaved as lumps, and we defined them as granulomas if there was reaction around them or redness. That was how we tried to differentiate.
DR. McGRATH: I have a question about your plane of installation. It sounds as though you always recommend one plane, but your controls you used Zyderm and Zyplast, which not only are different in terms of the product, but they are also different in terms of the recommendation of the plane of installation. Did you follow those same guidelines or do you always stay on the same plane?
DR. LEMPERLE: No, no, we followed the same guidelines by using Zyderm superficially here in this area of the glabellar frowns because it's known of necrosis, and the Collagen Corporation advises us to use Zyderm and not Zyplast, which is used a plane deeper where the arteries are that you can hit.
DR. McGRATH: And your product was always used in the deeper plane at all points?
DR. LEMPERLE: At all points, yes.
DR. McGRATH: Then my last question, I think, has to do with I don't understand or I would be curious about your explanation for, if this is a permanent implant, why didn't you see any difference from the collagen anywhere except the nasolabial increases at six months or so? What do you think it is happening to it? Is it moving away? Is it being compressed?
DR. CLOPTON: Let me share with Dr. Lemperle to answer that question. Statistically, we didn't see a difference, but I believe it's a measurement issue having to deal with the masked observer photographs, because the standard position face at rest just made it too difficult to see improvements. Only in the nasolabial fold did we have ample room really for this kind of improvement.
And you can answer the other half of the question.
DR. LEMPERLE: At one point it was also that the collagen group got twice as much collagen as the Artecoll group got Artecoll. So the amount of filler material was twice as much in the collagen group. So they lasted very well.
DR. LARSON: I should comment that that difference was not by design. It was a matter of investigative judgment on how much to apply. They typically used more collagen than would have been used in normal clinical practice.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Thank you.
We'll take a five-minute break, and we'll start with the FDA presentation at that time.
(Whereupon, the foregoing matter went off the record at 9:56 a.m. and went back on the record at 10:05 a.m.)
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: We're now ready to begin the FDA presentation.
DR. DURFOR: Good morning. My name is Charles Durfor, and I'm a Senior Scientific Reviewer in the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Devices Panel. It's my role this morning to give you an introduction to the FDA presentation on PMA Application P020012, Artecoll, PMMA collagen implant.
In this role I will give you a description of the product and its intended use. I will inform you of the FDA review team members and give you a very brief overview of the pre-clinical studies that were done.
The product that we are discussing today as indications for use, as you've already heard, are correction of contour deficiencies of the soft tissue, and the device description is a product that contains polymethyl methacrylate microspheres, 30 to 40 microns in size, suspended in an aqueous solution containing 3.5 percent bovine collagen and lidocaine.
The review members for this team included myself, as lead reviewer and also performing a manufacturer review. The clinical review and the clinical presentation will be done, immediately following my presentation, by Dr. Binita Ashar. Following her will be Ms. Phyllis Silverman, who did the statistical review. Additional reviews were done by Dr. Merritt, Dr. Theodorakis, and the patient labeling review was done by Michael Mendelson, and that's, obviously, important as well.
The drug review, by the way, was necessary because this is a combination product containing both a device component and lidocaine, which is a drug component.
You've already heard about the pre-clinical data in-depth, so I will just very lightly highlight a couple of issues.
Polymethyl methacrylate does have a long history of use in medical devices, and so, consequently, a full battery of biocapability tests were not required for this material. However, the microsphere form of the product is new to us, and, therefore, the sponsor performed some additional biocapability tests to look for biological responses to this product.
In the cytotoxicity assay, the standard cytotoxicity assay of the product did not show any signs of cell toxicity. In the standard genotoxicity assay with Salmonella and E. coli strains, there was no indication of immunogenicity.
The product was also not found to cause a delayed dermal contact sensitization reaction in the standard guinea pig assay. Finally, in a muscle implantation assay in rabbits, the product was found not to cause any significant macroscopic reaction when compared to control, and microscopically the product was judged to be a nonirritant.
There are two additional studies ‑‑ excuse me, three additional studies ‑‑ I want to call to your attention. Two of them are mice implantation studies.
In the first PMMA, beads of 10 to 63 microns were injected both intradermally and subcutaneously into the abdomen of the rabbits, the skin of the rabbits, and histological examination of specimens was performed for up to seven months. In these examinations it was found a modest tissue reaction and fibrous capsule formation around each individual microsphere within four months. Foreign body giant cells were also observed in up to 1.5 percent of all the cells. In this study there was no observed breakdown, corrosion, or phagocytosis of the spheres observed at seven months.
In the second study, Artecoll was injected subdermally into mice, and implant sites were excised at one, three, six, and nine months. Microscopic inspection was performed at the implant sites as well as lymph nodes, lungs, liver, and spleen. In mice there was no observed migration or transportation of any of this injected particular filler material to the filter organs. This was not detected in any of the time point study.
Finally, as mentioned by the sponsor, they have, indeed, looked at the relationship between size of the sphere and phagocytosis. This was performed in studies with both Langerhans and keratinocyte cell strains. In these evaluations it was found that PMMA spheres of less than 20 microns were, indeed, phagocytosized by keratinocyte and Langer in cell strains. However, microspheres larger than 20 microns did not appear to be phagocytosized.
Two notable benchtop tests: First was electron microscopy analysis was performed on three different lots of microspheres, and they were presented in the PMA. These studies demonstrate that the process that is used to make this process does isolate beads that range in size, that are greater than 20 and less than 60 microns, and it also appears that these beads do, indeed, have a smooth, round surface morphology.
The issue of residual monomer, methyl methacrylate monomer, is also an issue that was discussed earlier and is important. In-process release specifications for MMA monomer in the beads requires a content of less than 1 percent.
Subsequent to this in-process analysis, the manufacturer performs a number of aqueous manufacturing processes which from literature precedent does suggest that the monomer would be very easily solubilized and washed away from the beads.
HPLC analysis was performed on one lot of finished microspheres and presented in the application, and they determined that 106 micrograms per one-half millimeter syringe, or 880 parts per million of MMA, was determined. They did a theoretical calculation in their PMA suggesting that, if a woman of an average size, at 58 kilograms, were to receive an average dose of about 2.5 milliliters of Artecoll, that would relate to a monomer content no greater than 10.3 micrograms per kilogram in that woman, which is a low dose.
So, in summary, the biocapability tests in the animal studies presented show an acceptable biological response to PMMA. Tests on the biologic response to microspheres demonstrate that particles less than 20 microns will be phagocytosized while larger beads will not.
The submitted data also demonstrates that the monomer has been removed by the PMMA bead processing methods and, hence, the risk of sensitization is low.
Before Dr. Ashar begins her presentation, I would like to make one more comment. That is that we are here today to obtain your review of the data gathered on Artecoll and to obtain your recommendation regarding the approvability of pre-market application P020012.
Although not the focus of today's deliberations, we would like to mention that we have heard reports of longer-term complications such as late granuloma formation, which can occur in injectable devices. You, the Panel, may also have heard of some of these reports.
For your information, we intend to look further into these issues in the upcoming weeks. Further, we have also discussed this with the applicant, and they have agreed to also investigate the validity and relevance of the reports that have surfaced.
While our intent today is to obtain your review and recommendation on the data gathered and presented in the PMA, the results of our assessment of any other relevant information that may exist, we may prompt additional follow-up contact with either the Panel or perhaps individual members.
So, with that, I would like to conclude my presentation and bring forward Dr. Ashar.
DR. ASHAR: Thank you, Dr. Durfor.
Good morning, General and Plastic Surgery Devices Panel Chairman and members. My name is Binita Ashar. I am a Medical Officer at FDA, and I will be providing you with a review of the clinical trials conducted by the sponsor evaluating the safety and effectiveness of Artecoll for the cosmetic correction of contour deformities of the dermis of the face.
I will be discussing the sponsor's three clinical studies. I would first like to give you some background information regarding these trials.
The Rofil study was intended to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of Artecoll when used for cosmetic correction. However, the originally-approved protocol did not involve a control group, and the ratings made by the investigators were based on improvement rather than objective measurement.
Also, the method of capturing of efficacy data was too subjective to be adequate, and the number of subjects and areas treated were not sufficient to be considered statistically-significant. I will, therefore, be focusing on the safety information available from this study.
Following the Rofil study, the sponsor conducted their pivotal trial, which is the Artes medical study. I will be presenting both the safety and effectiveness information from this study.
Following their pivotal trial, the sponsor opted to use a new collagen source. To examine the safety of this new collagen component, they conducted the bovine collagen immunogenicity study.
In my presentation this morning I will first present to you the results of the Artes medical clinical study. I will then review the results of the Rofil medical clinical study and, lastly, I will discuss the bovine collagen immunogenicity study.
The Artes medical study: The purpose of the Artes medical study was to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of Artecoll when used for cosmetic correction of contour deformities of the dermis of the face.
The trial was prospectively conducted at eight centers which were randomized to receive either Artecoll or a control device to treat nasolabial folds, radial upper lip lines, depressed mouth corners, or glabellar folds. This was a double-blind study where patients were blinded and the observers charged with evaluating device efficacy were also blinded. However, the treating investigators were not blinded as to the patients' randomization assignment.
You have already heard the study inclusion and exclusion criteria from the sponsor's presentation. So that we can move forward to carefully examine the results, I will not list them here again. They can be found in your Panel package.
Treatment protocol: Patients meeting the study inclusion and exclusion criteria were randomized to the Artecoll or the control group. They then received the appropriate collagen skin test based on the randomization assignment. If their collagen skin test was negative and their serum IgG following the skin test was also normal, the patient then received treatments. Treatment consisted of one to three treatment sessions over the course of one month.
The Artecoll treatment procedure: Artecoll patients could receive treatment in one or all of the four treatment areas: the nasolabial fold, radial upper lip line, glabellar fold, or mouth corners, and could elect to have either bilateral or unilateral treatment.
Patients received local anesthetic as needed, and the device was injected deep dermally above the subcutaneous tissue. The investigator then used their fingers to even the implant distribution, and the subject was instructed to minimize facial movement for several days.
Patients who were randomized to the control arm were treated with Zyplast and/or Zyderm, according to the package labeling instructions.
Patients in both treatment groups were followed out to six months, at which time comparisons in device efficacy were made. The primary efficacy endpoint was defined of the masked observer rating of line and fold severity using a validated Facial Fold Assessment Scale, which I will describe later in this talk. The masked observers used high-quality photographs taken of the patients to make these evaluations.
Secondary efficacy endpoints included the unblinded investigators' rating of treatment success and the blinded patients' satisfaction of the treatment. Artecoll patients were followed for safety for an additional six months beyond that of the control group.
The Facial Fold Assessment Scale, or FFA Scale: Dr. Lemperle and colleagues developed and validated a six-point reference scale, the Facial Fold Assessment Scale, that was used in this study as the primary efficacy assessment tool. In the Artes study, the masked observers classified each fold or line seen on the patient's photographs according to the FFA Scale without knowledge of the treatment assignment for that subject.
You should note that the FAA Scale differs from the Fitzpatrick Scale in that the FAA Scale was specifically designed to measure deep folds and furrows, while the Fitzpatrick Scale was developed to characterize fine wrinkles.
The primary efficacy endpoint of the Artes medical study was prospectively defined as the comparison between Artecoll and Zyplast/Zyderm-treated patients at six months following treatment, and a clinically-significant difference was defined as being at least one point FFA difference, according to the masked observer assessment at six months.
Our discussion will later focus on the efficacy of treatment in the area ‑‑ excuse me. Because we will be later focusing on the efficacy of treatment in the area of the nasolabial folds, I would like to direct your attention to the FFA reference photographs for this area.
You will notice that zero represents no lines or folds, and fold severity increases to one, two, three, four, and five, with five being the most severe nasolabial fold.
Now that I have covered the study protocol, I will go on to describe the study content. In examining the patient demographics, both groups were comparable with respect to age, male-to-female ratio, the enrollment of various ethnic groups, which of the four treatments received, and the number of areas treated per patient, and the number of times bilateral or unilateral treatment was administered for each area.
Of note, there were more non-smokers, and the extent of smoking was less in the Artecoll group versus the control. This was not statistically-significant, but did trend in that direction.
Artecoll patients also had a higher sun exposure than the control population, and this was statistically-significant. This will be discussed in more detail in the presentation that will be given by FDA's statistician, Ms. Phyllis Silverman.
This table compares the mean baseline wrinkle severities between the Artecoll and control groups for each of the four treatment areas. You will see that there was not a significant difference between the two groups with respect to the glabellar folds, upper lip lines, and mouth corners.
The FFA scores for the nasolabial fold, however, demonstrate a higher baseline severity for the Artecoll group versus the control group. Here the mean FFA score for the Artecoll patients was 1.74 versus 1.45 for the control group. This was statistically-significant with a p‑value being 0.039.
This histogram examines more closely the difference in baseline nasolabial fold severity between the Artecoll- and control-treated patients. On the X axis we have the various categories of FFA scores. On the Y axis are the number of times that a masked observer rated zero, one, two, three, four, five for each group. There were occasions where there were half-point scores, and these were rounded up. The control-treated patients are in gold, and the Artecoll-treated patients are in red.
As an example, the three masked observers found that in the 214 treated nasolabial folds for the Artecoll group, which is shown right here, there were 101 times that they rated the baseline severity as being zero. In the 206 treated nasolabial folds for the control group, demonstrated here, there were 117 times that the three masked observers rated the fold severity as being zero.
From this diagram, you can see that the nasolabial baseline severity of the control group was less than that of the Artecoll-treated group. This difference may have allowed the Artecoll-treated group more room for improvement versus the control group.
Patient accountability: In the Artecoll group, 141 patients received skin testing. Based on abnormal results or screening criteria, six patients did not receive treatment and another seven voluntarily withdrew or did not return for treatment. That leaves 128 patients who were treated.
Of those 128 patients who were treated, 10 patients were lost to followup. One of these ten patients complained to the IRB about treatment because of lumps on her lips and forehead. One of these ten patients, prior to being lost to followup, had persistent redness or swelling that resolved three months after treatment.
Three of the patients withdrew. One could not be contacted for some time, and after the subject was contacted, they sent a letter withdrawing. This was the patient that did experience blurred vision five days after treatment, and this blurred vision spontaneously resolved 26 weeks later.
One of the three patients who withdrew had family issues that took priority versus followup, and the third patient withdrew after she was unhappy with bruising she experienced after the first injection.
There was one device removal in the Artecoll group. This patient developed lumpiness at the right glabellar fold that was removed, and pathology demonstrated no foreign body reaction, with a diagnosis of actini or seborrheic keratosis. This patient was still followed, however, so that the total number of patients evaluated was 115. Excuse me for this error.
Based on the number of patients treated, patient followup in the Artecoll-treated group over 12 months was 89.1 percent, and in the control group over six months 96.7 percent.
The assessment of device safety is based on the analysis of the frequency, duration, and severity of adverse events. In the Artecoll treatment arm, there were 26 reports of adverse events reported by 21 subjects. These tables here identify the adverse event on a per-advent basis rather than a per-patient basis. We are looking here at the adverse events that were reported to occur within the first 30 days following treatment.
Persistent swelling or redness was the most frequent adverse event reported in both groups within the first 30 days following treatment. Swelling or redness was interpreted by the investigator, and the case report form did call for the possibility that swelling or redness be reported as an adverse event, if it continued after 10 days.
Increased sensitivity was interpreted by the investigators and was the second most common adverse event in this post-treatment period. Lumpiness of the injection area was defined as persisting greater than one month after injection.
There was one patient who experienced blurred vision that lasted 26 weeks before it spontaneously resolved. This patient received treatment to the right glabellar fold, each nasolabial fold, each radial lip line, and each mouth corner. The subject was on meclazine for dizziness.
Rash and itching were reported if they persisted greater than 48 hours after treatment. Sensitization reactions were defined as stinging, swelling, and redness, and hardness at the injection area.
Late onset adverse events were reported to occur after one month. These adverse events, again, are being reported on a per-event basis rather than a per-patient basis.
There were five additional reports of lumpiness with onset after one month, for a total of eight reports of lumpiness in the Artecoll group versus four for the control. These eight reports of lumpiness in the Artecoll group occurred in seven patients.
This table characterizes the duration of adverse events. Remember that the Artecoll-treated patients were followed for one year after treatment and the control was followed for six months.
Of the eight reports of lumpiness in the Artecoll group, four lasted beyond six months and two lasted longer than a year. Only one of the four reports of lumpiness lasted beyond six months in the control group.
Overall, there were 21 patients in the Artecoll group and 16 patients in the control group that experienced adverse events. This was 16.4 percent of the subjects treated with Artecoll experiencing adverse events while 13 percent of the Zyplast-Zyderm-treated patients experienced adverse events.
The primary efficacy objective was to demonstrate that the cosmetic correction at the six-month follow-up visit provided by Artecoll was superior to that provided by Zyplast/Zyderm. A difference of one FFA point was prospectively defined as representing a clinically-significant difference. You can see the mean change from baseline to six months in the FFA score here in this column.
Comparing the difference of Artecoll versus the control for each of the treatment areas demonstrates neither a statistical difference nor a clinical difference, as prospectively defined for glabellar folds, upper lip lines, or mouth corners.
There is a statistically-significant difference between the groups when looking at treatment response for nasolabial folds at six months. The Artecoll-treated group showed an improvement of .77, where the control group showed no change. Point 77 is less than the one point difference prospectively defined in the protocol as being a clinically-significant difference.
You should also note that more patients received treatment for nasolabial folds than any other area, and that any overall FFA Scale improvement for all treatment areas combined will be driven by the high number of patients receiving treatment of nasolabial folds. Please remember that the FFA Scale has been validated only for specific folds or lines and not for overall facial improvement.
Please also consider the data presented here carefully as there will be a question posed to the Panel regarding the appropriateness of the claim for Artecoll to be indicated for cosmetic correction of contour deformities of the dermis of the face.
Patient satisfaction: At each follow-up assessment, patients were asked to document their level of satisfaction with their treatment on a five-point scale with the responses ranging from very satisfied to very dissatisfied.
The sponsor has shown that patients in the Artecoll group remained satisfied with their treatment while patients in the control group were initially satisfied and became dissatisfied with their treatment by six months.
I would like to point out that efforts were made to blind patients as to their treatment assignment. Yet, at three months 61.3 percent of patients accurately guessed their randomization assignment, and at six months 73.6 percent of patients were accurate in their guess.
A secondary efficacy endpoint of this study was the unblinded investigators' rating of patient success using a five-point scale with ratings ranging from not at all successful to completely successful. You can see that the Artecoll patients were rated as very successful at all follow-up assessments while the control patients were only somewhat successful.
The Artes medical study summary of safety: 16.4 percent of the patients treated with Artecoll experienced adverse events versus 13 percent of the control-treated patients. Artecoll-treated patients experienced more events of increased sensitivity and late onset lumpiness. The Artecoll-treated group had more patients with persistent, greater than six months, of lumpiness and one patient with blurred vision. The Panel should consider these safety data when making recommendations regarding the safety associated with Artecoll Use.
Efficacy: Artecoll-treated patients have a statistically-significant improvement in nasolabial folds, but this was not clinically-significant, as was prospectively defined in the study protocol. No other treated areas were found to demonstrate improvement, as defined by the primary efficacy endpoint.
As I mentioned before, the Panel should remember these issues when making recommendations pertaining to the effectiveness associated with Artecoll use for cosmetic correction of contour deformities of the dermis of the face.
The Rofil study: Again, the Rofil study was done before the Artes medical study. It was originally intended to examine the safety and effectiveness of Artecoll when used for cosmetic correction. However, for a number of protocol issues making it difficult to characterize device efficacy, our focus of the Rofil study has been to examine the safety of Artecoll when used for cosmetic correction.
The study inclusion and exclusion criteria were similar to that of the Artes medical study. It is important to note that no changes to the device composition were made between the Rofil and Artes medical studies.
The treatment and follow-up protocol: The treatment protocol allowed treatment of any or all of the following areas: glabellar folds, nasolabial folds, perioral lines, or depressed mouth corners. Patients could receive from one to three injections over a period of up to three months. At each session, up to three of the four areas on the face could be injected with Artecoll. Patients were followed out to 12 months.
Patient accountability of the Rofil study: A hundred and sixty-seven patients were enrolled and then five patients were lost to followup and five patients aborted the study, leaving 157 patients who received treatment. Thirty-one patients were lost to followup and could not be contacted. No patients were withdrawn or discontinued due to adverse events.
There were two device excisions after the 12-month period. Eleven percent of patients treated developed adverse events, and there was an 80 percent follow-up rate to 12 months for the patients who received treatment.
Total number of adverse event reports and those lasting longer than six months: Twenty-five of the adverse events observed in the Rofil study occurred in 17 patients. Adverse events are listed in this table per adverse event report and not per patient.
This table shows both the total number and provides information regarding the duration of these adverse events. The Panel should consider these data when making recommendations regarding any post-market study for Artecoll.
Five different patients experienced lumpiness that lasted more than one month following injection. Four of these were reported within the first month following treatment, and the fifth was reported to have onset six months later. In three cases the lumpiness lasted longer than six months and longer than a year.
There were two definite reports and two estimated reports of rash and itching, both of which were late onset adverse events, beginning more than three months following treatment.
Three different patients reported to have persistent swelling or redness. One was reported within 30 days of treatment, and the other two were reported to have onset at six months post-treatment.
There were three reports of alopecia areata in one patient which lasted longer than six months. There were three reports of granuloma or enlargement of the implant in one patient. The first report of granuloma or enlargement of the implant was at three months post-treatment. The second was reported to have occurred at 12 months, and the third was reported after 12 months. In one case this granuloma or enlargement lasted longer than six months.
Two different patients reported sensitization reactions. One report was estimated to be within a month following treatment, and the other was reported to be six months later. In one case this lasted longer than six months.
One patient experienced chest congestion 24 to 48 hours after both of his treatment sessions that subsequently resolved.
One patient was noted to have broken blood vessels at the injection site with onset at six months following treatment, and this persisted longer than one year.
One patient was reported to have breast cancer at one month following treatment. One patient experienced increased sensitivity immediately following the treatment.
In summary, 11 percent of the patients treated in the Rofil study experienced adverse events. However, there were 31 patients lost to follow, and the actually followup was approximately 80 percent.
Adverse events in the Rofil study not seen in the Artecoll-treated group of the Artes medical study include alopecia areata, broken blood vessels at the injection site, granuloma or enlargement of the implant, sensitization reactions, chest congestion after each injection session, and breast cancer.
Following the sponsor's pivotal trial, the Artes medical study, the sponsor opted to change the bovine collagen source. To evaluate the safety of this new collagen, they conducted the bovine collagen immunogenicity study which was designed to determine the frequency of positive collagen skin test results for a new Artecoll collagen source.
One principal investigator and two subinvestigators were involved in this study using the new Artecoll collagen source. This test Artecoll contained 3.5 percent bovine collagen and 0.3 percent lidocaine HCL. This was a prospective, open-label, uncontrolled study to examine the safety of the test Artecoll.
Two hundred and forty-four patients were evaluated, 235 of which who received the bovine collagen injection. Two hundred and twenty-five patients were seen in followup, so that the actual follow-up rate was 95.7 percent.
There were eight patients who were found to have a positive skin test. Four of these patients experienced a positive response after the first injection, and four experienced a positive response after the second injection.
Time to onset of adverse events: There were 27 adverse events that were reported within the first couple of days and first week, and there were 31 more adverse events that occurred after one week but before one month, following the bovine collagen injection.
Local effects included arm tingling, warmth, clamminess, cellulitis, face edema, irritant dermatitis, and lymphadenopathy. These occurred in five patients within the first week post-injection.
Two other effects which occurred 24 to 48 hours later are specifically headache and increased perspiration occurred in the other category.
I would like to point out that there were eight reports of upper respiratory infection in the first week following bovine collagen injection and another 13 reports of upper respiratory infection within the first month following bovine collagen injection.
In summary, the incidence of positive skin response in the bovine collagen immunogenicity study was found to be 3.4 percent. The incidence of adverse event on a per-patient basis was 19.6 percent overall. Eleven percent of adverse events occurred within the first week following injection, and there was a 2 percent rate of local adverse event effects.
Although I did not mention it in my review, you should note that no subjects transitioned from a normal IgG before treatment to an abnormal IgG after treatment.
This, then, concludes my review. Ms. Phyllis Silverman now will present FDA's statistical review.
MS. SILVERMAN: Good morning. I'm Phyllis Silverman, the statistical reviewer for the Artecoll PMA.
You have already been familiarized with the sponsor's clinical studies. My task is to evaluate the validity of the data presentation as well as point out the strengths and weaknesses of the study design and analyses. The following two slides show an outline of what I will cover, and you can read these quicker than I recite them.
Study design strengths: The sponsor's prospective, randomized, concurrently-controlled patient masked study design was a strong one. The sponsor used clearly-defined, validated endpoints that assessed both quality and duration of treatment. Although the treating physician could not be blinded as to the product that was being used, the evaluations were also done by multiple masked observers.
Because there were large differences in favor of Artecoll between the masked observers and the unmasked investigator, I find that the unmasked analyses could be biased, and my comments will focus on the masked FFA assessments. The preliminary and uncontrolled Rofil study will not be addressed in this presentation.
The sponsor's claim was that the magnitude of the improvement with Artecoll would be statistically superior to the magnitude of the improvement with the control after six months. For this primary endpoint, the data did not support the claim for any treatment area except nasolabial folds.
Early on, at months one and three, the control was actually numerically superior to Artecoll for efficacy of glabellar folds and upper lip lines. At six months, Artecoll scores were statistically-significantly superior for nasolabial folds, although the difference in mean improvement between the two treatment groups was .77, which was less than the one point identified as clinically-significant at the study design phase.
To control Type 1 error from the fact that four areas of the face were tested on the same individual, the sponsor divided the significance level, also known as ALPA, by four, which is considered a Boni-Ferrone adjustment. Their p less than .001 was still statistically-significant at the stricter level because it was less than .0125.
The sponsor used the Mann-Whitney U Test. This is the non-parametric equivalent of the two-sample T test, and its use is appropriate for non-normally-distributed data. However, because the Artecoll group had a statistically-worse pre-treatment wrinkle severity rating for nasolabial folds, it can be argued that the Artecoll group had more room for improvement. Thus, further analyses were necessary to adjust for these pre-treatment differences.
The sponsor performed several supplemental analyses to adjust for pre-treatment differences in wrinkle severity. The first one was an analysis of covariants, which showed that the treatment effect of Artecoll for nasolabial folds was medically-superior to the control after adjusting for differences in pre-treatment wrinkle severity. The difference between Artecoll and control after adjustment dropped from .77 to about .65, but remained statistically-significant.
Although a covariate analysis is generally an appropriate way to adjust for baseline differences, it is a parametric procedure that assumes normally-distributed data. Since these data were not normally-distributed, the validity of this adjustment remains in question. The current slide shows the unadjusted and adjusted means for the masked assessment of nasolabial folds.
The sponsor performed three other analyses to adjust for differences in pre-treatment wrinkle severity, two of which were non-parametric and not subject to assumptions of normality. These were an analysis restricting the nasolabial folds with pre-treatment severity ratings of at least one and an analysis of 55 pairs randomly matched on pre-treatment severity. The statistical superiority of Artecoll was maintained for nasolabial folds for all adjustment techniques.
As shown in the following slide, when the analysis was restricted to only those cases that had the ability to improve one point or more, the mean improvement was .99 for Artecoll and .28 for the control, the difference being .71 points on the FFA Scale, virtually identical to the adjustment using the analysis of covariance.
With these multiple adjustment techniques, I find that the sponsor has accounted for differences in pre-treatment wrinkle severity.
Followup and attrition: Six-month followup was available on 229, or 91.2 percent, of the treated subjects. The sponsor performed an analysis of variants showing subjects without six-month followup had similar results at one and three months to patients having six-month followup.
There were also no differences in baseline wrinkle severity between those with six-month data and those without. Therefore, I am comfortable that there was no bias from attrition.
Timing of follow-up visits: Another concern is all the protocol deviations in the timing of follow-up visits. One-third to one-half of the subjects, depending on the treatment area, were lost when the analysis was limited to only cases meeting protocol timing restrictions for every follow-up visit. However, the results for this subgroup analysis are still statistically-significant for nasolabial folds. Further, the primary efficacy endpoint was an analysis of change from baseline to six months, so deviations in timing of earlier follow-up visits are of little consequence.
Poolability across centers: There were some significant differences in masked pre-treatment wrinkle severity scores across centers, but these occurred for the treatment areas of upper lip lines and mouth corners. Since these areas did not meet the primary efficacy endpoint for the masked analysis, these differences are moot.
There were no significant study center differences in outcome. Therefore, I considered the data to be poolability across centers.
Averaging across masked observers: Scores from masked assessments for a given treatment area on a given face were averaged across three masked observers and between two sides of the face. Because all this averaging could result in a loss of information, I requested an analysis stratified by masked observer for eight of the tables I felt to be particularly pertinent. These tables dealt with the analyses of the masked observer FFA ratings.
The results were presented in Amendment 13. The statistical superiority of Artecoll was maintained separately for each masked observer in every place where it occurred when they were pooled. Thus, the sponsor's conclusions are the same as would have been inferred by the use of any one single masked observer.
Inter-rater reliability: The sponsor's use of the intraclass correlation coefficient as a measure of inter-rater reliability is appropriate, given that these are interval data. However, the coefficient actually measures inter-rater consistency and not agreement per se. If one rater rates consistently higher or lower than another, and this pattern is maintained across treatment groups, intraclass correlation will be high, even if the scores for a given wrinkle do not seem to agree.
Since interpretation of the FFA Scale has an element of subjectivity in it, consistency is sufficient for evaluating inter-rater reliability. The intraclass correlation was about 90 percent for most treatment areas, which is good.
Bias from smoking and sun exposure: The question arose as to whether there could be biases in patient enrollment from baseline differences in smoking and sun exposure. I examined the distribution of smoking and the correlation coefficients given in Amendment 9. I am satisfied that smoking was not a source of bias.
There was less sun exposure among the controls, and the negative Spearman correlation coefficient with treatment outcome shows that lower sun exposure is correlated with greater improvement from treatment. Therefore, I would have to agree that, if anything, the bias was in favor of the control group.
To help control for differences in sun exposure, I requested a subgroup analysis of just the low-exposure group. The statistical superiority of Artecoll remained, although the actual treatment difference was only about a half a point on the FFA Scale.
Because there were problems with pre-treatment differences in wrinkle severity, non-normal data, and achieving a pre-specified value for clinical improvement, the sponsor also performed some categorical analyses not subject to these conditions. The sponsor compared the proportion of patients who had a pre-treatment wrinkle severity rating of at least one and improved at least one point on the masked observer FFA Scale of six months.
As shown in the slide, a statistically-significantly higher percentage of Artecoll patients improved one point or more in nasolabial fold severity as compared to the control, and that was the 47.8 percent for Artecoll versus 13.2 percent for the controls. The other treatment areas were not statistical-significant.
Another subgroup analysis focused on those subjects who had a pre-treatment severity of at least two and improved at least one point. For nasolabial folds, 71 percent of the Artecoll as opposed to 24 percent of the controls met this criteria. Thus, Artecoll appeared to work better than the control in a reasonably high percentage of patients with moderate initial severity, although these results are based on rather small numbers. This is because the population was such that over 70 percent had pre-treatment wrinkle severity scores less than two for all treatment areas.
Because the primary endpoint spelled out in the protocol was statistical-significant for nasolabial folds, these additional subgroup analyses can be performed without being considered exploratory data analysis.
As far as safety is concerned, I don't see a statistical difference between the two treatment groups. There were more subjects who had adverse effects with Artecoll, but the controls tended to have multiple adverse effects per person. The safety profile has been discussed in the clinical review.
In summary, the main weaknesses of this study, along with a brief description of how each was addressed, will be summarized as follows:
Large differences between masked and unmasked FFA ratings that suggest potential bias in wrinkle assessment. So for this the FDA statistical review focused on the masked analyses only. For each wrinkle, scores averaged across multiple observers and two sides of the face. So the sponsor performed additional analyses stratified by mass observer.
Use of parametric statistics: When assumptions of normality were not met, the sponsor performed additional non-parametric analyses.
Enrolling patients that had for the most part mild defects that afforded little room for improvement, the sponsor performed subgroup analysis of pre-treatment wrinkle severity greater than or equal to one, and a small subgroup analysis of subjects with pre-treatment wrinkles severity greater than or equal to two.
A significant difference between Artecoll and control in masked pre-treatment severity for best-performing area, the sponsor adjusted for baseline differences in several ways. Abundance of timing violations for follow-up visits, for this the sponsor performed a subgroup analysis of all timing restrictions. A mean improvement for the best-performing area of .77 when the clinically-meaningful improvement was predetermined to be 1.0 and this remains to be clinically assessed.
In conclusion, I feel that although the study has several weaknesses, the highly-significant result at six months for nasolabial folds holds up even after adjustment of the significance level for multiple treatment areas, and the effect was corroborated by additional categorical analyses.
Baseline differences in pre-treatment wrinkle severity and other potential sources of bias, such as attrition, follow-up timing, center differences, smoking, and sun exposure, have all been addressed by statistical analyses and found not to have a significant impact. Therefore, I find the data to support a claim of statistical superiority for nasolabial folds at six months post-treatment, particularly for defects of moderate pre-treatment severity. Whether this difference is clinically-significant will have to be assessed by the Panel. Thank you.
DR. DURFOR: To preface your discussion, I would like to very quickly read through each of the five Panel questions we're asking you to consider and discuss.
The first says: "The degree of nasolabial fold wrinkle severity at six months after treatment was statistically-significantly better for Artecoll to control patients with a difference of 0.77 points on the FFA Scale on adjusted results. Please discuss the effectiveness of Artecoll treatment for wrinkles in the nasolabial fold area of the face." That's question one.
Question No. 2: "The differences in wrinkle severity at six months after Artecoll and control treatments for glabellar folds, upper lip lines, and mouth corners were not statistically-significant on adjusted data. Please comment on the effectiveness of Artecoll concerning" ‑‑ and this is an "(a)" and "(b)" question ‑‑ "(a) Whether the proposed product indication for use, that is, Artecoll implant is indicated for the correction of contour deficiencies of soft tissue, is appropriate," and 2(b) "Whether product approval could be considered for treatment of wrinkles solely in the nasolabial fold area of the face."
Question 3: "Comparing the types and durations of adverse events for Artecoll-treated patients who were followed for 12 months to the control group patients that were followed for six months presents a challenge. However, considering that Artecoll benefit is related to an improvement in the patient's aesthetic appearance, and the majority of adverse events impacted the aesthetic appearance of a patient, please discuss whether the safety profile of Artecoll demonstrates" ‑‑ excuse me ‑‑ "Please discuss whether the safety profile of Artecoll demonstrates an absence of unreasonable risk."
Four: "Do the data in PMA 20012 demonstrate that there is a reasonable assurance that in a significant portion of the target population Artecoll for its intended uses and conditions of use will provide clinically-significant results when accompanied by adequate directions for use and warnings against unsafe use?"
And, finally: "If the Panel recommends approval of Artecoll PMA collagen implant, please discuss whether the conditions of approval should include a post-approval study to collect additional long-term safety information. If you believe such a study is appropriate, please provide recommendations on the study duration and the number of patients that should be followed."
Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Is there anyone on the Panel that has any additional questions for the FDA? Yes?
DR. McGRATH: I have a question for Dr. Silverman. If I understand correctly, some of the patients had repeated injections of both the Artecoll and the collagen during the six-month period of time, varying in number of injections and varying in the amount of the material that was used. How do you control for that when you look at your wrinkle severity at the end of the six months?
MS. SILVERMAN: Well, the protocol called for, they could have, I think it was up -‑ three injections in a one-month period. That was considered the treatment. There were no retreatments after that.
DR. McGRATH: But some did and some didn't, is that correct?
MS. SILVERMAN: Yes, well, the sponsor did an analysis of the number of treatment sessions at the end. I think the sponsor can probably answer this better.
The patients were just evaluated at six months, regardless of how many treatments, you know, whether they had one, two, or three treatments. That was just considered what was necessary to reach the ideal correction, and then it was evaluated at six months.
DR. McGRATH: What I'm getting at is, one of the products is one that you would expect to be gone in six months; one is one that you're expecting is not gone in six months. It seems to me that the intervals, the timing, the number of those repeat injections becomes a very important issue.
MS. SILVERMAN: Well, maybe the sponsor ‑‑ I think the sponsor wants to address that.
DR. LARSON: I think one point of clarification that will help, the follow-up period, six months, was timed from the time of the last injection. So whether the patient had one, two, or three didn't affect the relationship between the treatment and the follow-up period.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Yes?
MS. MOORE: I've heard two descriptions. I've heard "long-lasting" and I've heard "permanent." I guess I would just like to know, you know, whether it's long-lasting or permanent, because long-lasting suggests to me that there is a possibility of lessening of effect or it can be removed. Permanent then to me suggests that it's just that, no removal and the effect is continuing. So I just wanted to know whether this is long-lasting or permanent, the Artecoll implant.
It may sound like a silly question, but this has been sort of bothering me since I have heard two descriptions there.
MR. RHODES: This is Stephen Rhodes.
I don't know whether we can get into definitions of whether permanent ‑‑ how long is permanent or how long is long-lasting. I think that we would consider this a permanent implant because of the polymethyl methacrylate component. What we have is the data that we have presented to you. So that's ‑‑
MS. MOORE: So then in the patient information that's what it would say? Is that what you're saying? It will say permanent for the patient? I guess I am concerned about what information is given to the patient. So that, I'm sure, would be important for the patient to know.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Any other comments?
DR. WITTEN: Well, let me just say, just amplify what Mr. Rhodes just said, which is that, as an implant, it's permanent and we would provide that information. In terms of the duration of the clinical correction, we would rely on the information that is provided in the clinical study.
So, as the sponsor mentioned, over time there may be reoccurrence of wrinkles. So we would provide the information about the clinical effect. It's a permanent implant, but then there would be a separate question about the duration of the wrinkle effect.
MS. MOORE: Thank you.
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: I would like to ask, what measures were taken to ensure that the investigators optimally applied the control treatment, given that they could not be blinded as to which treatment was being applied and may have had inherent bias towards the success of the experimental treatment?
DR. LARSON: Is that a question for the sponsor?
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: Yes.
DR. COHEN: I would say that across the study twice as much collagen in general was injected for Artecoll. And if any bias, I think the investigators' bias, understanding this was a permanent implant, was to be as safe as possible with our patients, and probably underdo the Artecoll rather than what you were alluding to, rather than trying to slant it toward the Artecoll group.
In contrast, collagen, which is something most of us were comfortable injecting, was provided to the investigators' site as a courtesy and for free, and I think it was used very liberally and very comfortably, and probably to a greater extent by some of the investigators than they may have if the patients were coming in and actually paying for an exact amount and haggling over whether that amount was "X" dollars or "Y" dollars.
I hope that answers some of the question.
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: But there were no specific criteria in the protocol or anything like that to assure ‑‑
DR. COHEN: The criteria were to inject until one saw good correction of the fold or the wrinkle. So in each case one was trying to achieve the best possible results for the patients.
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: What's the maximum dosage of Artecoll recommended?
DR. COHEN: I would have to refer back to the company.
DR. LEMPERLE: Usually, three to five cc's. We count about half a cc for frown lines, half a cc for a deep nasolabial fold, and all together I would say that most of the patients, they got between one and two and three cc's of the Artecoll.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: But the maximum doses you recommend is five?
DR. LEMPERLE: The maximum dose, it's difficult to say. I have injected 20-30 cc's in patients in Europe.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: At one time?
DR. LEMPERLE: No, no, never at one time. I would certainly suggest to do it in slow steps, but these were acne patients who didn't stop to want material.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: The reason I ask is because contour deformities can be either traumatic and congenital or, as we've talked about today, related to aging. And larger defects may be congenital problems or larger defects as a result of trauma.
So would we specifically say that Artecoll is for wrinkles and not for contour deformities?
DR. LEMPERLE: It is certainly ‑‑ there is no upper limit to my experience. I can say this. And if you have a deep scar in the face or, for example, HIV patients, whoever has a soft tissue defect may need more, but it's not recommendable to do it in one session.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: As the Panel begins this discussion, we're going to hear from Dr. Amy Newburger regarding clinical aspects of the Artecoll study and we are also going to hear from Dr. Blumenstein regarding the statistical aspects of the Artecoll study. Let's hold any further discussions until we have these brief presentations.
Dr. Newburger?
DR. NEWBURGER: I appreciate the tremendous amount of work and scholarly endeavor that's gone into doing this study. The application for Artecoll's approval as a filler, this addresses one way that we could improve the cosmetic appearance associated with aging.
But the development of the aging appearance is due to many factors. Yes, it's due to the loss of volume in all the components of skin, but it's also due to a loss of firm support from deeper structures, including bone mass. It's also impacted by gravity on this increasingly lax skin. So I understand that this filler addresses the loss in skin volume changes.
Perhaps, well, obviously, the greatest improvement was seen in the area of the nasolabial fold. This is a unique fold. It's more impacted by gravity than perhaps the other dynamic wrinkles that develop on the skin.
I think that, of all the areas studied, this would be ideal since this is an implant that has permanence, although the clinical improvement may be just long-lasting because time does march on and we do continue to age, regardless of what's put into the skin.
My concerns of this ‑‑ and I don't mean to duplicate anyone's discussion previously ‑‑ is that we certainly do see a higher rate of lumpiness developing, and the lumpiness that is developing is developing quite late on the scene, and we see some of these reactions developing past a year.
Also, in these studies, both the Artecoll and the Rofil studies, a little more than one percent of the devices did have to be removed. This is a concern.
In this past January's Archives of Dermatology, Reisburger, et al., reported a case of a patient who six years after having Artecoll injections, and I believe that's not Arteplast but Artecoll, developed foreign body reactions and granulomas in the forehead and glabellar regions. And when biopsies were done, there was actually formation of numerous multinucleated giant cells with phagocytosis of these larger-caliber Artecoll spheres, and there was also evidence of fragments.
So my concern is that in an area that is associated with a dynamic wrinkling process, is there going to be some type of fracture associated with these spheres and are we going to be seeing a cohort of people way out ‑‑ you know, five, ten, fifteen years later ‑‑ developing similar reactions?
The nasolabial fold, even if this reaction does develop there, because it is a fold that just keeps coming and coming and coming. Ask any patient who has had a facelift how they feel about their nasolabial folds eight years later, and you will see that that is just an area that comes back and back.
So because this is a continuously-developing area of folding associated with aging, if there is a late reaction, it is not going to be as difficult to remove or as cosmetically unsightly.
I have another concern about the plane needed to inject the Artecoll; that is, it's a deeper plane than we see with bovine collagen, just above the subcutaneous tissue, and this is, of course, going to be necessary to avoid visibility and progressive migration, I believe, of the implants.
But if you're looking at injections in the glabellar region, I'm concerned about at this deeper plane the risk of embolization, injecting it accidentally into the larger-caliber vessels there.
So in my general summary, I think that there is a very steep learning curve for this filler. I applaud the company's intention to provide training in terms of proper implantation technique. This was done with the Collagen Corporation almost two decades ago, when it was introduced.
I think that it should be used in limited amounts in restricted areas, and I'm concerned that there be appropriate monitoring, that long-term studies be done.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Blumenstein?
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: There are a lot of statistical issues in this study. The primary one, however, I think is that the definition of the primary endpoint and the criterion for success conflicts with the eligibility criterion. Patients that had no room for improvement should have been excluded from the protocol.
Going on from there, we have randomization imbalances, and these are not unexpected in any randomized clinical trial. So that in and of itself is not unusual. But where the control had an average of six months' change for zero also happens to be where the randomization imbalance happened.
The coincidence of the one significance and a randomization imbalance gives us an issue and gives us pause to wonder whether this coincidence has any real meaning with respect to the interpretation of the overall results. Not to say there was anything done incorrectly here; it is just that there's this coincidence that we have to deal with.
Another issue is that one could argue that lack of significance in the other measures and the difficulty in showing significance is due to these unmasked ratings in the scale that was used, and so forth. Unfortunately, the only other measures we have of efficacy are subjective or unmasked. So what we are left with is no objective or unmasked.
I find this argument about whether or not their one-point criterion ‑‑ this is another issue. I find the argument about whether a one-point criterion was important or not is a non-issue, as far as I am concerned, because, as far as I can tell, the one-point criterion was used in planning the trial. That is, it was set up as the specific alternative in trial size computations.
At the end of the trial you are not setting this up as a criterion that must absolutely be met. The data itself speak for itself. You are using the data to choose whether to reject the null hypothesis or not. So I don't consider that to be, in and of itself, significant.
However, it is, of course, important to ask whether the .77 difference, or whatever difference you use, whether it's adjusted or unadjusted. It is important to ask whether that has clinical meaning, as it was when the trial was designed, and one asks whether a one-point difference on that scale has clinical meaning. So the one-point criteria does mean anything to me, except that that's what happened to be used in the trial size computations, as far as I can see.
I find the overall analyses to have no meaning at all to me.
Finally, one other issue is that I am not so bothered by the use of analysis of variants or covariants for data that are in its raw form not normally distributed. The issue here is whether the difference, the residuals of that analysis are normally distributed. When you take differences and averaging, and all that sort of thing, I think all that kind of washes away. So I'm not so concerned about the use of analysis of variance.
That's all I have to say.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Any other comments from the Panel members?
DR. MILLER: I just have a question for the sponsors. There was a paper I'm aware of from 1997 where Artecoll was studied. Granted, it was by a competitor, but it was published in The Plastic Surgery Journal, and there were a number of different outcomes that they found compared to what we have had presented today. I wonder if you could comment on that study. It was by a McLelland in November 1997.
DR. WITTEN: Dr. Lemperle, could you use the podium microphone, please?
DR. LEMPERLE: Yes, I'm very well aware of this study of McLelland, which was conducted by the competitor, Collagen Corporation, at that time. This was still the Artiplast, which was the old product, the non-clean product, with lots of small particles in it which we didn't see microscopically, but when we switched to electronic microscopy, we saw these.
There was a big change in the product in 1994. This is very important; otherwise, we wouldn't be here. This Artiplast caused these granulomas. It was in the Archives of Dermatology. This is also all were injected before 1994. Also, the Collagen Corporation got this before 1994. This is important.
So this is the answer: that they are correct ‑‑ they are not correct in some things, that it comes through the skin. They saw its perforation through the skin. I never saw this clinically. But all these data are certainly correct.
DR. MILLER: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Additional comments?
[No response.]
Then we will move to the first question that is posed to the Panel by the FDA: "The degree of nasolabial fold wrinkle severity six months after treatment was statistically-significant, significantly better for Artecoll versus control patients with a difference of 0.77 points on the FFA Scale." And this is the unadjusted results.
"We're asking the Panel to please discuss the effectiveness of Artecoll treatment for wrinkles in the nasolabial fold area of the face."
We'll start with Dr. Miller.
DR. MILLER: Well, I think the data is pretty convincing that it looks effective. I know there were a lot of statistical issues raised and questions raised, but I think that it makes sense that it would be effective in blunting the nasolabial fold if you inject this material. I'm not surprised that you could show it with this study like this, given the limitations of the study, anything like this that exists. So I'm convinced that it is effective in blunting the nasolabial folds.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Blumenstein?
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: Well, I have residual concerns because of the scales and the fact that the protocol wasn't constructed optimally with respect to the potential for differences, and so forth, and the coincidence between the possible randomization imbalance and that being contributory to the difference because of the fact that you had the higher scale baseline and, therefore, more potential for change.
So I'm not fully convinced that this result is real, and specifically that we could be making a Type 1 error here.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Ms. Brown?
DR. BROWN: I'm impressed with the lengths to which the company went to validate their scoring tool, the FFA tool, and use three blinded observers. And after having done that, still coming up with statistical significance I thought was actually pretty impressive. So I was convinced of its effectiveness for nasolabial folds.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Ms. Moore?
MS. MOORE: Well, it appears to me that the Artecoll is effective for this particular area of the face, but I will defer to the physicians on the Panel.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Boykin?
DR. BOYKIN: I would just echo the same concerns that have been brought up earlier, but also agree that, at least in principle, the presentation appears to support the null hypothesis that was proposed for the study.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Newburger?
DR. NEWBURGER: I believe the product is effective for the nasolabial region in reducing of the appearance of the fold.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. McGrath?
DR. McGRATH: I concur that it is effective based on the sponsor's presentation and also the analysis of Ms. Silverman.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: So, in summary, it appears that the Panel agrees that Artecoll is effective in the treatment of nasolabial folds statistically. Dr. Witten, does that satisfy your answer to the question?
DR. WITTEN: Yes, thank you.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: The next question we're asked to address: "The differences in wrinkle severity at six months after Artecoll and control treatments for glabellar folds, upper lip lines, and mouth corners were not statistically-significant in the unadjusted data. Please comment on the effectiveness of Artecoll concerning (a) whether to propose product indication for use ‑‑ `Artecoll implant is indicated for the correction of contour deficiencies of soft tissue' ‑‑ is appropriate."
Let's start with just (a) first. Dr. Blumenstein?
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: With respect to part (a), I cannot see a general indication like that, based on the data that we have before us. That is a failure to demonstrate any hint of efficacy with respect to the other sites.
And for (b), I guess I have to abstain because I don't know what the labeling for a specific site would do with respect to actual practice. Since I'm not a surgeon and I don't practice, I can't comment on that.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Ms. Brown?
DR. BROWN: If I understood correctly, the company failed to show superiority for the three other areas, but did show equivalence ‑‑ I'm not sure if you would call it "statistical equivalence," but it appeared to be comparable to the control in the other areas. So if this is the indication statement created for bovine collagen, it seems to me that that's an appropriate indication for this product as well.
MS. MOORE: While I'm not sure, I do know that there was some discussion about the lips, and if this includes that, too, then it would seem to me that might be one area that the physicians here would want to give further consideration or further thought to.
But from the information that was received, since Artecoll was comparable with the other implants, then I would think that perhaps we could say, "excluding the lips," this would be appropriate.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Boykin?
DR. BOYKIN: Yes, I would say that the product indication for soft tissue is not appropriate, and that the indications need to be very specific with regard to the type of application for which it would be applied.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Newburger?
DR. NEWBURGER: I concur with Dr. Boykin. I think that the product is going to be, the injection is going to be fraught with difficulties in areas of dynamic motion, and I would think the company wouldn't particularly want that indication since the adverse publicity from lumpiness developing in the lip area, if it gets this general indication for use, most certainly will be used, and no one would want to have that amount of adverse events publicly associated with a product.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. McGrath?
DR. McGRATH: Well, I certainly agree that I don't think the statistical analysis of the data we have before us today show the efficacy in the other parts of the face, but I have to say that logic, biologic expectations, recognition of what's been achieved in the nasolabial creases, suggests that it certainly could, should, probably does, have efficacy there.
I brought up a question some time ago about the wrinkle severity and the timing, and so forth, with the collagen because if the point is at the end of the six-month followup it's no different from collagen, then that is not a positive comment because the collagen, presumably, has been reabsorbed to some extent.
But even given that, I would recommend a more ‑‑ I don't know the word for this ‑‑ a more liberal interpretation of this data, so that you could make a more generalized statement with some caveats. I don't entirely agree with you. I think there are areas such as the outer commissure creases that are not that highly dynamic that would really benefit from the product, unlike perhaps the perioral wrinkles.
So I would be in favor of saying that, in summary here, I guess, that the statistical data doesn't support it that we have before us today, but the description of the product, its efficacy in this area of the nasolabial creases suggest to me a more inclusive statement about its use.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Miller?
DR. MILLER: I agree with the comments that have been made. I think that it needs to be more specific, though. I think contour deficiencies of soft tissue is far too broad, because there are so many other soft tissue deformities which I would be bothered by somebody trying to correct using an injectable material like this.
But I think maybe to limit it to, say, facial rhytids, I would feel comfortable with that. I think I agree with Dr. McGrath that, if it works for the nasolabial fold, which is a very challenging problem, it would make sense that it would also help other similar deformities. I would not want to necessarily restrict it to only the nasolabial fold. I would really want to reinforce that this shouldn't be used for things like lip augmentation or filling large-volume soft tissue defects until that was studied specifically.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: As a summary, I guess it's reasonable to say that the Panel is of the opinion that the proposed product indication statement should be utilized; that the statement should be more specific for the treatment pattern, and possibly with the exclusion of its use in the lips.
Dr. Witten, does that answer any of your questions or does it bring up more questions?
DR. WITTEN: Yes, thank you.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: All right, we'll go to the second part of this question: "Whether the product approval could be considered for treatment of wrinkles solely in the nasolabial fold region of the face." Essentially, should the label indication direct itself specifically for nasolabial fold areas?
Ms. Brown?
DR. BROWN: I think that the label could be broader than just nasolabial folds
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Ms. Moore?
MS. MOORE: I agree, but I would not be able to say what parts of the face. So I again defer to the specialists.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Boykin?
DR. BOYKIN: I agree that it could be broadened somewhat from the nasolabial fold. I think Drs. Miller and McGrath are on the right track.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Newburger?
DR. NEWBURGER: I certainly feel secure with it being injected in the nasolabial fold area. I have a question. If it's expanded for use in other rhytid areas, is there a possibility of a review?
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: I think that's possible.
Dr. McGrath?
DR. McGRATH: I would feel a broader application would be appropriate.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Miller?
DR. MILLER: I agree something broader than the nasolabial fold would be appropriate, I think.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Blumenstein?
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: As I said before, I'm afraid that the data aren't really supportive of even that indication, that we may be making a Type 1 error. I can see a basis for an approval that is that specific, but based on the things that we have here, conditional, I'm worrying about that, but I worry about whether that narrow of an indication can actually be implemented practically. So I feel I have to abstain.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Witten, it appears that the Panel has agreed that a broader indication for use other than the nasolabial folds solely would be indicated. Does that satisfy?
DR. WITTEN: Yes, thanks.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: The third question that we're asked to address: "Comparing the types and duration of adverse effects for Artecoll-treated patients who were followed for 12 months to the control group that was followed for only six months presents a challenge. However, considering that Artecoll benefit is related to an improvement in patient aesthetic appearance, and the majority of adverse events impacted the aesthetic appearance of a patient, please discuss whether the safety profile of Artecoll demonstrates an absence of unreasonable risk."
Ms. Moore, we'll start with you.
MS. MOORE: The word "unreasonable," it appears that, as presented, there would be unreasonable risk, unless there's a mistake made, but, again, I'm going to defer to the specialists on that.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Boykin?
DR. BOYKIN: Yes, I believe the risks that we have seen, the problems are all quite local to the area being treated, and I would not consider them unreasonable, given the type of therapy that we're considering. But, having said that, I certainly would hope that we can manage some kind of extended followup or evaluation period.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Newburger?
DR. NEWBURGER: I don't believe that there is an unreasonable risk, but I would hope that there would be a very explicit informed consent given to every potential subject when there is a reasonably high removal rate of the device.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. McGrath?
DR. McGRATH: Agree. I don't see any ‑‑ the systemic events mentioned were not of concern. The one that was of greatest concern to me is the issue of granulomas and when they show up and the frequency with which this would happen. I think this would have to be an item for close monitoring in some sort of a surveillance mode.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Miller?
DR. MILLER: I think the question seems to suggest that we should consider the risk of this a little differently than we ordinarily would because the problems that are occurring affect the aesthetic appearance, and that's the goal of using the product.
I think I would resist doing that. I think we should consider its safety based upon any device, and like we would any device. As long as the patient understands the risks associated with putting something like this in her facial skin, and that is safe by the same criteria that we would consider any device to be safe, I think that it's reasonable.
If you use a set of procedures, what's reasonable is so subjective to the patient. Some patients will accept enormous risk because they are so motivated to try something to repair some aesthetic problem. So I think we shouldn't try to make a decision about what's reasonable in that category of things.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Blumenstein?
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: Since I feel the efficacy data are so weak, then I have a hard time accepting the degree of risk implied.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Ms. Brown?
DR. BROWN: Given that the adverse event profile looked pretty similar to the control group, I thought that the risk looked reasonable.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: It appears that the Panel believes that the risks are not unreasonable. However, there seems to be extensive concern as to informed consent, extensive followup, particularly related to granuloma formation in these patients.
Dr. Witten, does that satisfy the answer to the question?
DR. WITTEN: Thank you. Yes, thanks.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Question No. 4: "Do the data in the PMA P020012 demonstrate that there is a reasonable assurance that in a significant portion of the target population Artecoll, for its intended uses and conditions of use, will provide clinically-significant results when accompanied by adequate direction for use and warnings against unsafe use?"
Dr. Boykin?
DR. BOYKIN: Well, you've actually got three questions in one question. You're talking about a target population, which I don't really know if we've discussed that as much as it could be discussed. I think we alluded to the fact that certain individuals need to avoid this type of therapy.
Then you're asking about its intended uses and conditions. I think we're in agreement already that there need to be some modifications to the labeling for indications, so that we know that we're not in total agreement with that broad a statement.
It hasn't proven to me that it's an unsafe product, but I would have to basically say that its significance is limited clinically by what we have been able to review at this point.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Newburger?
DR. NEWBURGER: I agree with that. I don't think that the duration of the study is sufficient to make me feel completely comfortable. If it is approved, though, I think that the directions for use and the warnings against unsafe use have to be underlined.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. McGrath?
DR. McGRATH: I have least problem with this question. I think we do have a reasonable assurance that it will show clinically-significant results. I think that the statistical data bore that out. Certainly the patient satisfaction and the user satisfaction analyses bore that out, and some of the material we have seen ourselves in the photographs bears it out.
Those of us who use soft tissue fillers of one type realize that there is a very significant clinical positive result that you can get with these products. So I feel strongly that the answer to that is yes, obviously, when accompanied by adequate directions for use and adequate warnings about unsafe use.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Miller?
DR. MILLER: I agree with that comment about it. I think, again, I know we have some statistical questions raised about it, but this is difficult to study in an extremely rigorous fashion.
I would even add to the weight for saying yes to this the unmasked data, which I know is subject to question, but in this whole area there is such a subjective component that, if the physicians and the patients feel like they are getting improvement, that's a clinically-relevant outcome, because that's who really has to feel like they're getting a benefit.
So I think that I would endorse this question.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Blumenstein?
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: I think the disparity of opinion around this table shows that this would be a very difficult product to describe with respect to its efficacy, potential for efficacy and balanced against risk.
A clinical trial, a flawed clinical trial, was done. The clinical trial in its primary objectives only met the definition of success for one possible site, and even that's questionable, and that the subjective data are just that: that the trial was set up for superiority at six months against a product that was known not to have a persistence of six months and failed to show efficacy in the objective endpoint at six months for three of the four sites.
So I have a hard time understanding how this product could be labeled in such a way that people could really understand it and apply it correctly.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Ms. Brown?
DR. BROWN: I thought that the clinical data that were presented in the PMA and presented today did support clinically-significant results with respect to adequate directions for use. I think that it is important that the lip caution be emphasized. It sounds like that can be an issue.
Also, the other thing that I have heard is that, because more volume of bovine collagen was used during the clinical study ‑‑ I know that that product is used and that there's an overcorrection in order to compensate for the fact that the product resorbs. With this product, it sounds like no overcorrection is desired.
So the package insert and training sound like they really need to emphasize the fact that you do not want to overfill, is that correct? So I think that that really needs to come through both in the package insert and the training.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Ms. Moore?
MS. MOORE: I agree with the statement as-is.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: If I can summarize these diverse opinions, it appears that the problem with this question has basically two components. No. 1, there seems to be some issue as to what the target population truly is. Although the Panel agrees, appears to agree, that statistically there may be some efficacy for the product, how this translates into clinical improvement is currently unknown.
DR. WITTEN: I wonder, just as a follow-on question, if anybody wants to comment further about the issue with the target population.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Boykin, that was initially brought up by you. Can you comment further?
DR. BOYKIN: Well, I think perhaps the easiest way to do that at this point would be to say that we want to emphasize the association of problems related to scarring and keloid development to any individuals who might seek correction of this problem and exclude them, or at least advise the high probability of both complications.
And then some limit indications; I mean this is a permanent device. I look at the future with this as people experimenting with volumes, trying to do more here or there. We've only looked at 12 months' followup. There are lots of questions that haven't been answered, and I hope that we don't see any unbridled experimentation in the office.
So I think the indications need to be fairly specific at this stage, until we can receive other data. So, yes, trying to target the population with regards to adverse events that we are aware of at the present time and limiting the scope of application clinically to perhaps facial rhytids with specific caveats about the application.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Newburger, do you have any further comments, since your initial comments leaned towards the opinions of Dr. Boykin?
DR. NEWBURGER: And they still do. The study was designed to look at its impact in rhytids, and I don't see data to support other indications at this time.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Any other comments, Dr. Witten?
DR. NEWBURGER: I beg your pardon. So that limits the target population to those who have rhytids, doesn't it?
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: I think that's correct.
DR. McGRATH: I think that the only way you could set up a controlled study of a soft tissue filler for this type of application is going to have to be doing something that's totally consistent patient to patient on both sides of the face. So doing this with wrinkles or creases, I mean there's a difference, I think, between folds and wrinkles, but we'll call them all rhytids.
It's the logical thing to do, but I would hate to exclude other soft tissue dents that we see in patients' faces from trauma, and so forth, most of them very small, but dog bites, and so forth, just because it will be impossible to ever find enough of those to repeat another clinical trial.
If we think that this product is adequate for use to fill out creases and to use in small facial wrinkles, I would think there would be innumerable other small dents in the face from one reason or another that could be nicely treated with the product if it's efficacious.
I don't think you can exclude that because it would be very difficult for anyone to establish, then, in another prospective randomized trial that you could use it for that reason.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Any other comments from Panel members?
DR. MILLER: I would just make one more about the issue. I think I agree with what both Dr. Boykin and Dr. McGrath have said. I think that if we allow it to be used for something other than rhytids, though, which by definition to treat require limited volume, if we're going to broaden it and make the target population those with soft tissue defects other than rhytids, that there needs to be some description of what volume is acceptable to ‑‑ what volume we feel comfortable with injecting, and also the local tissue conditions, like if you have a patient who has been radiated in their face, I wouldn't want to put this material in an irradiated cancer patient.
So there's some issues like that if we go beyond rhytids, and I think they mainly have to do with volume. So maybe a comment about how much is allowable to be placed.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Well, we have been told that as much as 20 cc's have been used over a period of time with a maximum volume injection, I believe, at one time being 5 cc's, is that correct?
DR. MILLER: I think that should be studied, though, personally. I mean, I think that it is almost anecdotal experience where a variety of things have been tried by the inventors. I think that's fine, but I think for us to sort of approve its use beyond limited volume injections, which I feel comfortable with ‑‑ the thing which makes me uncomfortable is the fact that these are permanent microspheres. They are there and they are not going to go away.
If the patient develops a problem of some kind with those microspheres in their face that are inert and could be seeded with bacteria, could get bacteremic later in life or something ‑‑ I mean, there's all kinds of scenarios I could construct which make me kind of nervous that I would feel much better if we limited the volume in the indications.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: So if changed the target population to a patient with rhytids and just rephrase this question, is there any Panel member that would be in disagreement with this statement?
DR. McGRATH: I think I would. I would still include ‑‑ you can put a lot of descriptors on it: small, uncomplicated, soft tissue, dents and deformities.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Any other comments other than Dr. McGrath's?
DR. NEWBURGER: I have one follow-up comment. With permanence of fillers, I think all of us have seen patients who have had silicone injected several decades ago. Initially, these implants were injected to make a depression flush with the surrounding area, but keeping in mind that skin thins as we age, now I have a number of patients who come in with elevated ridges where silicone was injected, because that is permanent and it hasn't declined in its vertical excursion as the rest of the skin has.
I'm not talking about people with silicone granulomas. I'm talking about people with what was apparently excellent technique at the time.
So I am concerned about the amount, the volume injected because of the permanence, until we know more about how it is handled.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: So then I can say the consensus, other than Dr. McGrath's dissension, is that if we change the phrase and say, "patients with rhytids," that Artecoll, for its intended uses and conditions of use, will provide clinically-significant results when accompanied by adequate directions for use and warnings against unsafe use.
Does that satisfy you, Dr. Witten?
DR. WITTEN: Yes, thank you.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Question five: "If the Panel recommends approval of the Artecoll PMMA collagen implant, please discuss whether the conditions of approval should include a post-approval study to collect additional long-term safety information. If you believe such a study is appropriate, please provide recommendations on study duration and the number of patients that should be followed."
Dr. Newburger?
DR. NEWBURGER: I'd feel very happy to see such a study, and I would like to see it extend for five years. And the number of patients to be followed should be a much larger number, so that the 1 in 1,000 adverse event would be captured. I don't know the number of patients that it would take to obtain a significant number for that, though. I would defer to my statistically-sophisticated colleagues.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. McGrath?
DR. McGRATH: Yes, I do think there should be a post-approval study ongoing, and I can't at this moment make recommendations about duration or number of patients. I haven't sufficient information to do that.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Miller?
DR. MILLER: I agree there should be a post-approval study because of the long-term nature of this implant. I would defer to my design colleagues to know how many patients we should include in that.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Blumenstein?
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: Well, I would go one step further and say that the efficacy trial should be repeated with an adequate measure of outcome with an inclusion criteria that would really allow this product to show itself, and if there is, in fact, efficacy, and with more careful attention to the safety data. The trial could possibly be even simpler than the trial that was there now, but perhaps larger.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Ms. Brown?
DR. BROWN: I agree that a post-approval monitoring seems to be appropriate, and perhaps the length could be ‑‑ that what's known about European experience could be used to evaluate how long seems to be adequate.
This is unusual, I think, for a PMA to come to this Panel where there is a fair amount of marketing experience with the product elsewhere. So it should give us some comfort that we've had a chance to see some of the things that may come out post-approval. So I think that the European experience might help that way.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Ms. Moore?
MS. MOORE: Yes, I agree that there should be a post-approval study, at least five years, I should imagine. I don't really know what to suggest in regard to the numbers, but I would hope it would be a large number.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: I think it is safe to say that the Panel agrees that some type of post-approval study should be done, the details of which will need to be worked out.
We will now proceed with the next open public comment session at this meeting. All persons addressing the Panel, speak clearly into the microphone as the transcriptionist is dependent upon this means of providing an accurate record of this meeting.
We are requesting that all persons making statements during the open public hearing session of the meeting disclose whether they have financial interest in any medical device company before making your presentation to the Panel. In addition to stating your name and affiliation, please state the nature of your financial interest, if any, and disclose if anyone besides yourself paid for transportation or accommodations.
We will begin with those individuals who have notified the FDA of their request to present at the open session. We will start with Ms. Elizabeth Anderson.
DR. NAGELIN-ANDERSON: I have no conflicts of interest, and I paid my own way to come here today.
My name is Elizabeth Nagelin-Anderson. I'm a Public Policy Fellow with the National Center for Policy Research for Women and Families.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today about this very important decision that you are going to make that will affect the lives of thousands, perhaps even millions, of women and their families.
Our Center receives mail from women across the country who contact us when they have health problems and need advice. Of course, we don't provide medical advice. We try to provide them with information that will help them in a given situation.
Every day I hear from women who have cosmetic surgery of various kinds, and most of them are very happy with their implant or other device until two, three, five, ten years later, when they start to have complications.
The cosmetic surgery they elected to have in order to look better or feel better about themselves can turn out to be a real nightmare years later. They need to have additional surgery to correct cosmetic problems that resulted from their original treatments or to have their implant removed.
I hear from these women every day. Many can't afford to have their cosmetic disasters repaired. They're not asking us for medical help. They're asking us to find a doctor who will help them for free, and most of the time we are not able to help them at all.
A longer study on a permanent product is simply not sufficient to rule out the possibility of long-term risk to the health or well-being of the many men and women who want to look younger and feel more attractive.
Unfortunately, African-Americans were apparently not included whatsoever, and only one Asian in this study.
This is a cosmetic device intended to enhance attractiveness, but if something goes wrong a few years later, the attractiveness desired could be replaced by something quite ugly, even something permanently disfiguring.
While the data suggests short-term success in one area of the face, if approved, Artecoll will surely be used elsewhere, even in areas that this study suggests would not be as successful. Many of the problems of granulomas that have been in medical journals and mass media involve injections in the lips which are not even studied. Unfortunately, Artecoll is likely to be used for lip augmentation if it is approved for any other use.
A 16 percent adverse reaction rate isn't good for a product that is purely cosmetic and not statistically better on most measures.
Some people dropped out because of problems, so there are actually more adverse reactions than were counted in these statistics.
Women are often told by their doctors that cosmetic procedures have very minor risks, but none of us in this room can look a woman in the eye and say this about Artecoll, based on this research, and on such a small sample. At least two years of research and at least 80 percent response rate should be required for products like this. You should not approve a permanent product that is to be injected into the faces of healthy men and women based on such little research.
If FDA approval is to mean anything, it should mean that the benefits outweigh the risks. The benefits are purely cosmetic, and most are not statistically-significant. We don't know exactly what the risks are yet. The manufacturer may be in a hurry to get their product into the lucrative U.S. market, but your role should be to consider the alternatives.
There are already many other products on the market. I think that American women can wait another one or two years for the company to gather at least one year of additional data, look into the cause of granulomas and find out how often they happen over a two-year period.
The fact that Canadian doctors have already started to avoid Artecoll, and that the Swiss Government Health Agency, the Society for Dermatology, the Society for Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetics Surgery, and the Society of Aesthetic Medicine advise against its use for wrinkles suggests that the FDA should not be in a hurry to approve this product.
If I have an additional minute, I would just like to say, based on the e‑mails we receive, particularly from women with breast implants, if women actually receive the informed consent, the chances of them really understanding their risks aren't great. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Is there anyone wishing to address the Panel? Please make your comments brief.
DR. ZUCKERMAN: Sure, I will. Thank you very much. I'm Dr. Diane Zuckerman, and I spoke earlier.
I just want to say that in this day and age I find it amazing to consider approving a product that has not been tested on African-Americans or Asians in any numbers. I don't understand how that would be possible, given what has already been stated about differences in scarring.
So I do think that is something that is really missing and hasn't been discussed, and I'm not sure why, but in looking at the data presented by the manufacturer, it appears that there are no African-Americans and only one Asian. So that is something that I hope will be considered. I don't think you could approve a product only for white people and Hispanics, but I don't understand why the manufacturer did not, was not required to include different groups in their study.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Is there anyone else wishing to address the Panel?
DR. McGRATH: Can I just make a correction? Someone made a statement that the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery has spoken against Artecoll. That is not correct. Our groups only recommend that our practitioners not use products that have not yet been approved by the FDA.
DR. NAGELIN-ANDERSON: I meant Swiss. All of those organizations I mentioned were Swiss.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Does the FDA have any final comments?
DR. WITTEN: No.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Does Artes Medical have any final comments?
DR. LARSON: No.
DR. COHEN: I just wanted to echo Dr. McGrath's comments. Doing a lot of reconstructive surgery, I am concerned that I won't have this as an option for small-volume augmentation. There are many finetunings we do in a variety of areas in the face where this could be very helpful. So if one is considering allowing it for wrinkles in the face, one should consider similar volume amounts for small defects as a very helpful tool for those of us that are in practice.
And I completely agree with Dr. Miller that large volume is not indicated.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: While you are there, let me ask you about your patient population distribution and the absence of Asians and African-Americans in your study.
DR. COHEN: We put an ad into the newspaper. There was no attempt to in any way limit anybody. San Diego is a culturally-diverse area, and it just happened to be who came in and was enrolled in the first portion of the study, at least at our center. I can't comment on the rest of the centers.
DR. LARSON: The enrollment criteria were patients presenting, and in terms of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, those were followed, and to have excluded patients who otherwise would have qualified for this study, in order to achieve that balance, it would be a matter of specifically designing the study that way. So the study was not designed to include or exclude any ethnic group.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: While you're there, just one last question. Have there been any studies to look at the final product in terms of the uniformity of the size of the PMMA spheres?
DR. LARSON: Yes. Yes, in fact, the manufacturing process, the qualification of the process will be fully validated, and there's been a great deal of discussion with the agency on that issue in terms of ‑‑
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: What was the purity in terms of the size of the spheres, the PMA, the polymethyl methacrylate spheres? Was it 99 percent of them are greater than 20 or ‑‑
DR. WUSTENBERG: That's a good question.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: -- what happens to the 1 percent that are less 20 microns?
DR. WUSTENBERG: The testing that is done is actually usually done by a Coulter counter of each sizing mechanism. We have the actual study results, and I don't know the percentage breakdown. I think we have to look that up. It's in the PMA and was reviewed, and so forth, and found to be acceptable. At least up to this point, it hasn't been a point of discussion specifically as far as lack of purity with the agency.
It is, obviously, an extremely important parameter for a product like this to make sure that you don't retain small particulates within that refined product.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Do you remember any of the overall ‑‑
DR. WUSTENBERG: I would have to look. I don't have that.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Anyone from Artes Medical?
DR. LEMPERLE: The purity requested by the FDA is 1 percent per number of microspheres. That means small particles. That means that if you have 100 microspheres, we have only 1 percent or less than 1 percent of less than one particle per hundred ‑‑ I'm sorry. Less than 1 percent means the number, that you have a hundred microspheres of 30 to 40 microns, and only one little particle of less than 20 microns is endured in these hundreds. So it's a very small amount, and we can even bring it further down in the future. So this is the purist we can do it, one particle.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Krause will read the voting instructions for the Panel at this time.
DR. KRAUSE: "The Medical Advice Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as amended by the Safe Medical Devices Act of 1990, allows the Food and Drug Administration to obtain a recommendation for an expert advisory panel on designated medical device pre-market approval applications that are filed with the agency.
"The PMA must stand on its own merits, and your recommendation must be supported by safety and effectiveness data in the application or by applicable publicly-available information. Safety is defined in the act as reasonable assurance, based on valid scientific evidence, that the probable benefits to health under conditions on intended use outweigh any probable risks. Effectiveness is defined as reasonable assurance that in a significant portion of the population the use of the device for its intended uses and conditions of use, when labeled, will provide clinically-significant results.
"Your recommendation options for the vote are as follows:
"No. 1, you can vote approval if there are no conditions attached.
"No. 2, you can vote approval with conditions. The Panel may recommend that the PMA be found approvable subject to specified conditions such as physician or patient education, labeling changes, or a further analysis of existing data. Prior to voting, all of the conditions should be discussed by the Panel.
"The third option, not approvable. The Panel may recommend that the PMA is not approvable if the data do not provide a reasonable assurance that the device is safe or if a reasonable assurance has not been given that the device is effective under the conditions of use prescribed, recommended, or suggested in the proposed labeling.
"Following the voting, the Chair will ask each Panel member to present a brief statement outlining the reasons for their vote."
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Is there a motion?
DR. McGRATH: I'll make a motion for approval with conditions.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Is there a second to the motion?
DR. MILLER: I'll second that.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: All in favor?
First, we will have to get the conditions for approval.
Dr. McGrath?
DR. McGRATH: I was taking notes as Dr. Krause was speaking, and I would use all of the ones that you mentioned, Dr. Krause. That would be the educational component for patients and user physicians; second, with conditions having to do with labeling to clarify the designated persons for the material and the amount to be used, and so forth, and then also the further analysis, which we've talked about before, which would be the longer-term followup, specifically with the issue of looking at granulomas.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. McGrath, can you clarify a little bit more the educational component that you mentioned?
DR. McGRATH: Some of this was included in the materials that I was given for the PMA, but it would be an educational brochure for the patient to read, the package insert, perhaps educational materials for the physician. I don't want to use another company's name, but there are other models of another soft tissue filler company; the bovine collagen people have done a good job with this, similar to that.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Any other comments from the Panel?
DR. MILLER: Just to ask a question: Do you think it would be appropriate to mandate having been trained by somebody to inject this material before you can use it?
DR. McGRATH: I don't think that's within the purview of this Panel to make that recommendation.
DR. KRAUSE: Let me comment on that. In the approvable with conditions, one of the conditions it says is such as physician or patient education, and I think you can assume physician education would be training.
Does that answer your question?
DR. MILLER: So as we enumerate the conditions, I mean, at what point do you say, well, before a surgeon uses this material, they should be instructed by somebody who knows how to use it and actually have a hands-on training? Is that going too far, do you think, or is that appropriate for this?
DR. KRAUSE: You can make any recommendation you like. I think that if you feel that that should be a condition of approval, you can certainly put that condition out. What we'll do is we'll vote on each condition individually. If others disagree with you, then they can say, "We don't like that condition." They can vote it down or they can agree with you and they can say, yes, let's include that. So you can make it as specific as you want.
DR. MILLER: Well, I would be inclined ‑‑ I think that using something like this seems very simple, but I think that there are issues of where exactly you inject it to get the right result, what type of lesions you're injecting into. And I think we have talked about rhytids, but I agree that if you have a lesion that is not a rhytid but is similar to a rhytid in terms of why it's there and a limited volume, I think it should be appropriate for that.
But I think that, to be sure that it is used properly, I think you could justify requiring physicians to go through some training of some kind.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Other comments from the Panel?
MS. MOORE: May I ask ‑‑
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Ms. Brown?
MS. MOORE: No, Moore.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Moore.
MS. MOORE: I'm non-voting, but it's all right if I just make a suggestion about ‑‑
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: You can make the suggestion.
MS. MOORE: Is there any way at all that we can include among those conditions something about a longer-term study; that is, that they can include in their consideration something about a longer-term?
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Yes, we can have a post-market study.
MS. MOORE: A post-market, yes. Not post-market; a post-approval study. Well, then if that's the case, I don't know the details of what it should be, but I would like to throw that into the discussion.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Boykin, you had a comment?
DR. BOYKIN: Well, I would agree that a post-approval study needs to be designed as part of the process. I also believe that the indications for use, as we have discussed, need to be spelled out with regard to the labeling in terms of restricting this for facial rhytids at this point in time, and also perhaps making reference to a volume for treatment or for individual treatment a volume limit of application.
I also think that the informed consent needs to emphasize the permanence of this device and the potential complications that are associated with hypertrophic scars, keloids, et cetera.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Newburger?
DR. NEWBURGER: I would like to see either a direct hands-on training session for all first-time users or something presented in seminar fashion with a registration for people who have received training.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Other comments?
DR. BROWN: I have two comments. With respect to training, I do agree that there's another company that's gone before that has gone through the training issue, and I don't know how they are handling it now, but it is probably a pretty good model.
With respect to the indication statement of rhytids, Dr. McGrath is right, the company probably will never do a study, will never be able to afford, be interested, be able to find the patients in the right population to do a study in anything that isn't rhytids.
So there may never be an opportunity to label this product in the future, based on scientific data, for something beyond wrinkles, which puts the doctors who are going to use this in the uncomfortable position of using it off-label, if they want to use it for a facial divet, basically.
So I think that if the concern is volume and not wanting to have doctors put too much in, then volume is the right way to go after this rather than limiting it to rhytids.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Does anyone want to comment on the use in lips for lip augmentation? Yes?
DR. NEWBURGER: I think lip augmentation should specifically be excluded on its labeling.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Other comments?
DR. MILLER: I agree with that. I think to use something like this for a lip augmentation would be not a good thing.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: To summarize what we currently have, basically, approval with conditions, but conditions are outlined in three separate areas: No. 1, educational component, which has both physician-based and patient-based. Should we specifically vote on that issue?
What I am hearing is that, in terms of patient education, a brochure or package insert needs to be presented to the patients, and in terms of physician education, a training session for physicians who intend to use this product.
DR. McGRATH: I would like to just speak to the latter. I don't think we should be too specific about the exact training modality. I heard someone say this or that. There's quite a difference in terms of logistics between attending seminars and actually having hands-on training. I think, as a general rule, that sort of detail can be worked out to the satisfaction locally, and I would prefer not to see that spelled out specifically as a compulsory course or something of that nature.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: But you agree with some type of physician education program?
DR. McGRATH: Education. Oh, yes.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: So we will vote on the first condition: an educational component which includes both ‑‑
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: I might suggest that the educational component would include training on the interpretation of clinical trials, so that the physicians could understand the weakness of the data in the study.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Thank you. Any other comments before we vote on the educational component?
[No response.]
Okay. All right, the proper procedure is that we do need a motion to include an educational component from the Panel.
DR. BOYKIN: I move that we incorporate an educational component for the physician and patients as part of the approval process today.
DR. NEWBURGER: I second that.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: All in favor?
[Show of hands.]
Again, all in favor?
[Show of hands.]
All those in favor, except for Dr. Blumenstein who has apparently abstained from voting ‑‑
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: I am abstaining, yes.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Okay. The second component to this approval with conditions regards labeling; more specifically, that the patient population should be restricted to those patients with rhytids and that lip augmentation needs to be specifically contraindicated for this product. In addition, information regarding volume and informed consent needs to be specified on the label.
Is there a motion to also include labeling conditions as part of the approval with conditions?
DR. MILLER: Those conditions you just enumerated? I mean, I think that I am inclined not to limit it to rhytids, but to limit it in terms of volume. I think that if you have a defect, a soft tissue defect like an acne scar, or something like that, or a dog bite, that's a small ‑‑ that is similar to a rhytid in terms of what has created it and the amount of volume it would take to repair it. I think that's appropriate to use it for something like that, if you could limit ‑‑
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: So do you want to make a motion?
DR. MILLER: I move all of the above.
I move everything I just said. No, what I move is that we ‑‑ [laughter] ‑‑ I don't know if I can say it again.
I move that ‑‑
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: As far as I can tell, you would like to move that we extend the indications beyond rhytids; it would also include something related to the maximum volume that can be used. Is that ‑‑
DR. MILLER: Yes. I would say rhytids and small surface deformities due to dermal scarring, and have some comment about the amount of volume you can inject.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Any other comments before we move to vote on these conditions? Dr. Blumenstein?
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: Well, it is my understanding that, after a product like this is approved, perhaps with a more restricted indication, which seems to be inevitable here, that there would be a chance for investigational use for these expanded indications, as opposed to off-label use. I think that the mode of investigational use should be promoted here rather than an off-label or encouragement of off-label uses.
DR. McGRATH: I would just like to respond to that. Dr. Blumenstein, I agree with you 100 percent, except that the experience has been that for small soft tissue defects of this type, it is very difficult to find identical ones to serve as controls, and so forth. This was the reason we were making this recommendation.
I think the practicalities of it is that it becomes almost impossible then to produce a study that you would even vaguely consider as acceptable.
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: Except that, as I heard the regulation being read, it did say something about that whatever we do here has to be based on data.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Miller, would you comment on the volume aspect of your proposal?
DR. MILLER: Now I don't know what specifically to suggest in terms of the volume, but I think we would have to make that an issue that would be worked out perhaps.
I feel comfortable doing this for these facial ‑‑ the nasolabial fold, which I envision probably the biggest volume problems that we have, and so a comparable volume to what it would take to repair a significant nasolabial fold, I would be comfortable with a similar volume, but I don't ‑‑
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: What was the maximum volume used in the nasolabial fold region?
DR. COHEN: The maximum volume ‑‑
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Not total, per injection.
DR. COHEN: Six cc's in the nasolabial fold total. Per injection, do you have that information?
DR. MILLER: I wouldn't think both, though. I think a maximum total volume ever as well as a maximum total volume per injection, I would be in favor of because a large mass of methyl methacrylate in somebody's cheek just bothers me a little bit.
DR. COHEN: In this study, 6 cc's was the largest at any single site, which was in the nasolabial fold.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: That was cumulative.
DR. COHEN: And that was cumulative, yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: But in terms as a separate injection? About a third of that, which would be about 2 cc's?
DR. COHEN: Two cc's. We had one patient, I know, in our group that had 3 cc's. That extreme fold that was shown at the end of our group was the maximum amount that we used in an initial single injection. That was 3 cc's.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Okay, so the second condition of labeling, if we base this on data, would be to extend the indications out from the use of rhytids solely, but not use volumes per single injection outside of 2 to 3 cc's per injection?
DR. MILLER: Could I say that I think it should be for unit of tissue? I mean, 6 cc's over, you know, 5 centimeters of tissue is different than 6 cc's in one location. So maybe ‑‑
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: I agree with you. However, we don't have data in terms of the length of the nasolabial folds and how much was injected at that time.
DR. MILLER: That's the difficulty in trying to, just on the spur here, come up with a value. I think we should develop a value, and I'm not sure I'm capable of doing that right in this conversation.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Any other comments from the Panel?
DR. BOYKIN: I just think he's pointing out why we probably need to defer this to a post-approval study. I mean there are going to be issues ‑‑ how old is this dog bite? Was it ever infected? Is it over certain salivary glands? I mean, I can see this whole thing kind of spiraling.
But I like the idea. I think it needs to be explored, but I'm just concerned about loosening the reins here a little too much too soon. We need more data. I think everybody is agreeing with that, and that is the process we are trying to control in some kind of a way here, to move along with a better understanding of how this works.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Miller, do you want to restate your proposal?
DR. MILLER: Okay. I would propose that the contingency be that it be labeled for facial rhytids and small-volume soft tissue repairs requiring less than 2 cc's of material.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Is there a second to this motion?
DR. MILLER: Nobody likes my motion.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: You can't second it.
Is there a second to the motion?
DR. McGRATH: I have a procedural question, Mr. Chairman. I'm unclear; is this a subvote within the category of ‑‑
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Of approval with conditions.
DR. McGRATH: And the condition that we're under right now is labeling ‑‑
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Labeling.
DR. McGRATH: -- and this is within the labeling? So this is a subvote within the labeling vote?
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Exactly.
DR. McGRATH: Okay.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: If there is no second, then we have to move to a new motion. In the category of labeling, do we have a new motion?
DR. McGRATH: Well, we had many. I believe that Dr. Miller made many suggestions for the things to be included in the labeling which we all agreed upon, but this one that you were just subvoting on had to do with use for things other than wrinkles and volume.
Perhaps one possibility at this point would be to take the recommendation that the label include use for rhytids or wrinkles plus other small soft tissue defects, the volume of these to be I think further determined following this meeting with the FDA.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Also within the labeling ‑‑ first of all, let's vote on this particular issue within the labeling group. Is there a second?
DR. BOYKIN: Yes, I can second that, just with a comment that I really think, and I think Dr. Miller agrees with this, we just need to pull away from here and just have a time to study that number and perhaps refine those words a little bit more, but I agree. I will second that motion.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: All in favor?
[Show of hands.]
All not in favor?
[Show of hands.]
Let it be noted that Dr. Newburger and Dr. Blumenstein are not in favor of this particular ‑‑ and in favor were Dr. McGrath, Dr. Miller, and Dr. Boykin.
The second issue related to labeling is to contraindicate the use of this product in the lips. Is there a motion from the Panel? You have to make a motion. I can't ‑‑
DR. NEWBURGER: I make a motion that the use of this product for lip augmentation be contraindicated.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Is there a second?
DR. BOYKIN: Second.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: All in favor?
[Show of hands.]
The vote is unanimous.
Other issues related to providing the patient with an informed consent as part of the labeling, can I get a motion from the Panel? All right, we've covered that issue in part 1.
The third issue related to post-approval analysis or studies. Can I get a motion from the Panel?
DR. BOYKIN: Yes, I would that consideration ‑‑ well, that the recommendation from the Panel be that a post-approval study designed for not less than five years be organized with regards to the application of this product.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Second?
DR. NEWBURGER: Second.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: All in favor? Keep your hands up, please.
[Show of hands.]
Dr. Blumenstein?
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: I'm abstaining.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Let the record show that all members agreed with the post-market analysis, and Dr. Blumenstein abstained.
So, in summary ‑‑
DR. McGRATH: Can I make a second motion in that regard, that a study be designed ‑‑ and I'm not going to say this right, but abbreviation of certain parts of it having to do with the pre-clinical studies, and so forth, to look at the application for injection of the material into lips.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: The motion has been passed that this product should be contraindicated for lip augmentation. Therefore, you cannot have a post-approval study that goes back and looks at lip augmentation as a parameter.
DR. McGRATH: Okay.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: In summary, we're saying approval with conditions. The conditions include an educational component for both the patient and the physician, specifications in terms of the population, and contraindications in labeling, and also a post-approval study to look at patients at least five years out from injection.
Are there any other conditions that the Panel members can think of at this time?
[No response.]
Okay, so we'll move for voting approval with the outlined conditions as previously mentioned. We're taking a vote. Someone has to make a motion to do that.
DR. BOYKIN: Yes, I move that we vote on the conditions for approval as we have outlined them.
DR. KRAUSE: The motion is for approvable with conditions as outlined.
DR. BOYKIN: Okay.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: You have to say it.
DR. BOYKIN: The motion is for approvable with conditions as outlined.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Second?
DR. MILLER: I second.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: All in favor?
[Show of hands.]
Let the record show that all Panel members approved with the outlined conditions. Dr. Blumenstein abstained?
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: Said no.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: I'm sorry, Dr. Blumenstein has said disapproved.
DR. WITTEN: You need to go around and ask people their reasons for the vote.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Boykin?
DR. BOYKIN: Sure. As a plastic surgeon who performs a lot of reconstructive surgery and who has done a lot of cosmetic work, I believe the introduction of this particular device offers some opportunities in areas of enhancement of traumatic and congenital and aging issues that we have not been able to cope with.
There still remains some very fundamental problems related to scarring, scar development, the aging process, collagen metabolism, keloid development that we don't understand. I think, at the same time, we need to continue to be patient advocates in these areas, which I certainly support.
Given this balance that we have to attain, though, I do believe that there are benefits here that need to be explored. I believe that, while we can't control the entire society with regards to how things are done on a day-to-day basis, we can certainly impart our impressions and try to develop some kind of way of launching this in a fairly controlled environment.
So I have voted for this with these conditions, in hopes that we can begin to expand on our knowledge of this process, and that it would be a valuable tool for clinical use.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Newburger?
DR. NEWBURGER: I agree that this is a useful tool in the area of cosmetic enhancement, and I am comfortable with most of the cautions that have been attached to the approval with conditions.
I think it is a tremendous opportunity to learn more in the field, and I'm encouraged that this will be done.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. McGrath?
DR. McGRATH: Very briefly, I agree with Dr. Boykin's comments. I do think that there is a role for this type of a more permanent soft tissue volume filler, both in reconstructive and in aesthetic surgery.
I think, as Ms. Brown mentioned earlier, we have the advantage of having some familiarity with the evolution of this product really over a period of 12 to 13 years, the opportunity also to look at the experience of others who have been using this identical product for about five or six years.
Partially, I think some of our thinking flows from that, but the data before us today certainly showed the utility of the product for filling effectively some of the problems on the face. I think that the conditions that we have put for post-market monitoring and surveillance, particularly with an eye to any type of later-appearing local reactions, will prove very useful.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Miller?
DR. MILLER: I can't add a lot to what has been said. I will say that this whole area is difficult to study in a rigorous fashion, and I appreciate the struggle that there is in accepting that. However, just in terms of a personal experience in dealing with patients with deformities, a tool like this could be very helpful, and I think, given the limitations of how well you can demonstrate in a very objective, rigorous way, I think that I am comfortable that it has been demonstrated within those limits. I'm enthusiastic about having this available.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: Dr. Blumenstein?
DR. BLUMENSTEIN: I know there's something going on here that I don't fully understand, and that is, there are things being done in the absence of data. The image that comes to mind is a visit of surgeons to a candy store and picking up things that they can pick up.
But I'm sure that all this is rooted in some kind of concern for the patient, genuine concern for the patient, and so forth, which are beyond my experience.
However, I'm here to be a statistical expert and based on data. So that's why I voted no. I would love to see a new, randomized clinical trial without the flaw that the previous trial had, that is, a better endpoint with eligibility criteria that would not jeopardize the interpretation of the endpoint. I think that can be done.
I'm swayed by the comments regarding lack of race/ethnicity coverage of the clinical trial. I think it is extremely important to be able to have data of that nature.
Given that this is probably going to go ahead, I would very much encourage investigational studies of expansion of use, and so forth, rigorously done.
Then, finally, the thing that I wanted to mention is that what's really bothering me here is that we're setting a precedent of allowing a flawed clinical trial to be the basis of an approval of a product.
CHAIRMAN McCAULEY: The recommendation of the Panel is that the pre-market approval application for Artecoll from Artes Medical USA be recommended for approval with conditions.
We will now take a half-hour lunch break before this afternoon's session.
(Whereupon, the foregoing matter went off the record for lunch at 12:42 p.m. and went back on the record in another session at 1:25 p.m.)