Bradley Merrill Thompson, a Member of the Firm in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice, in the Washington, DC office, was quoted in an article titled "Amazon Meets with FDA, Healthcare is Likely the Topic."

Following is an excerpt:

The road to the Food and Drug Administration's Silver Spring, Md., office this year has been well-traveled by the big technology firms. Both Google and Apple have met with FDA leadership to talk about healthcare plans, and a recent review of FDA's public calendar reveals Amazon.com has joined the FDA healthcare parade.

Speculation about the company's meeting with the FDA ranges from the possibility of Amazon selling FDA-regulated healthcare products, to the big online retailer moving into the mobile health space. Whatever was discussed, Amazon's interest is further evidence that big tech wants into healthcare in a big way.

Experts surveyed anticipated Amazon's requests and plans — whatever they may be—to be big. "It would seem to me that they would be exploring changes in high-level policy," Bradley Merrill Thompson, a lawyer at Epstein Becker & Green, and a member of a panel that advised FDA on health information technology regulations, wrote in an email. Thompson said Sklamberg is a high-ranking official with broad responsibilities, including drug policy and FDA's field force, which might indicate the breadth of Amazon.com's interests.

The meeting might have "something to do with the retail distribution of FDA-regulated products, and that the company needs some sort of change in policy to do whatever it is they have in mind doing," Thompson speculated. "Amazon is always so creative that they tend to enter markets in a big way, disrupting existing business models. It will be fascinating to see whatever they have in mind."

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