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Grant Castle

Grant Castle is a partner in London, Brussels, and Dublin practicing in the areas of EU, UK, and Irish life sciences regulatory law. He supports innovative pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device and diagnostics manufacturers on regulatory, compliance, legislative, policy, market access and public law litigation matters in the EU, UK, and Irish Courts.

He is one of the Co-chairs of Covington's Life Sciences Industry Group and is Head of Covington's European Life Sciences Regulatory Practice.

Grant regularly advises on:

EU and UK regulatory pathways to market for pharmaceuticals and medical devices, including in vitro diagnostics and on associated product life cycle management;
Pharmaceutical GxPs, including those governing pharmacovigilance, manufacturing, the supply chain and both clinical and non-clinical research;
Medical device CE and UKCA marking, quality systems, device vigilance and rules governing clinical investigations and performance evaluations of medical devices and in vitro diagnostics;
Advertising and promotion of both pharmaceuticals and medical devices; and
Pricing, reimbursement and market access for both pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

Grant also handles procedural matters before EU, UK and Irish regulators and UK and Irish market access bodies, where necessary bringing judicial reviews for his life sciences clients before the EU, UK and Irish Courts.

Chambers UK has ranked Grant in Band 1 for Life Sciences Regulatory for the last 21 years. He is recognized by Chambers UK, Life Sciences as "excellent," "a knowledgeable lawyer with a strong presence in the industry," who provides "absolutely first-rate regulatory advice," according to sources, who also describe him as "one of the key players in that area,” whilst Chambers Global sources report that "he worked in the sector for many years, and has a thorough understanding of how the industry ticks." He is praised by clients for his "absolutely first-rate" European regulatory practice. Legal 500 UK notes that he is "highly competent in understanding legal and technical biological issues."

Originally published as Covington E-Alert on September 26, 2012

Today the European Commission published its long awaited proposals for the revision of the EU regulatory framework for medical devices. Three Directives, i.e., Directive 90/385/EEC on active implantable medical devices, Directive 93/42/EEC on medical devices and Directive 98/79/EC on in vitro
Continue Reading New Medical Devices Regulations in the EU – Significant Changes But No Big Bang

Originally published as Covington E-Alert on August 1st, 2012

On 17 July, the European Commission released the long-awaited proposal for a Regulation on clinical trials on medicinal products for human use (the Proposal). The future regulation will replace the Clinical Trials Directive 2001/20/EC, the revision of which has been advocated
Continue Reading New Rules for Clinical Trials Proposed in Europe

Originally published as Covinton E-Alert on May 25, 2012

On 16 May 2012, the European Commission adopted the much delayed list of permitted general health claims (Permitted List) for foods after scrutiny of the list by the European Parliament and the Council ended on 27 April 2012. The Permitted List
Continue Reading European Commission Adopts List of General Health Claims

Originally published as Covington E-Alert on June 15, 2011

The U.K. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has recently issued the final version of its guidance on the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, which implement Directive 2008/104/EC.

The Regulations come into force on 1 October 2011, and will entitle agency
Continue Reading Agency Workers Regulations: Issues for Life Sciences Companies

Originally published as Covington E-Alert on May 9, 2011

The EU Court of Justice just issued two long awaited rulings on the interpretation of the rules governing advertising of medicines in Europe. They address (i) the requirement that all advertising must comply with the prescribing information (SmPC) for the product
Continue Reading Advertising of Medical Products and Summary of Product Characteristics (Smpc) before the European Court Of Justice

Originally published as Covington E-Alert on November 10, 2010

The UK government will consult in the coming year on proposals to move the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) towards a value-based system of pricing medicines from 2014. While official details are yet to be published, it is expected that doctors
Continue Reading Nice Powers May Be Clipped In UK Pharmaceutical Pricing Overhaul

Article originally published in The Lawyer on October 14, 2010

Despite global economic conditions, deal-making by large pharmaceutical companies has remained relatively buoyant, say Daniel Pavin, Grant Castle and Alexandra Pygall.

Acquisitions in the pharmaceuticals sector are being driven by factors such as the need to replenish shrinking product pipelines,
Continue Reading Pharma Buy

Article originally published in the In Vitro Diagnostics: The Complete Regulatory Guide (Chapter (8) with permission from FDLI), 2010

I. Introduction

This chapter discusses the European Union (EU) regulation of in vitro diagnostic (IVD) medical devices, covering both pre- and postmarket regulatory requirements. In order to understand these rules and
Continue Reading European Union Regulation of In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices

Article originally published in RAJ Devices, September/October 2009

The UK government in 2004 asked Philip Hampton, a leading businessman, to lead a review of regulatory inspection and enforcement across a number of the country’s regulatory agencies. The report of the review, called the Hampton Report, was published in March 2005
Continue Reading No More Red Tape: MHRA Awaits Tougher Sanctioning Powers in the UK

Article originally published in the Food and Drug Law Journal (with permission from FDLI), August 2008

I. INTRODUCTION

Pharmacovigilance is a global public health activity that is currently undergoing a considerable amount of regulatory, social and political change. The standards expected by society have been raised following high-profile product withdrawals. Industry, regulatory authorities and consumers are now focusing on a more proactive, risk management based approach to drug safety monitoring. There has been a shift from the formulaic collection, classification and reporting of adverse event reports to a more holistic focus on any information suggesting a change in a product’s risk benefit profile.

There has also been a realization that effective pharmacovigilance must be global. Companies and regulatory authorities must receive and react to information suggesting a change in risk-benefit profile wherever it arises. The past 20 years has therefore seen a steady drive towards global harmonization of safety reporting definitions and standards.
Continue Reading Global Harmonization Is Not All That Global: Divergent Approaches in Drug Safety