COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 93/42/EEC

(5 September 2007)

Article 1

Definitions, scope

1. This Directive shall apply to medical devices and their accessories. For the purposes of this Directive, accessories shall be treated as medical devices in their own right. Both medical devices and accessories shall hereinafter be termed devices.

2. For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions shall apply:

(a) ‘medical device’ means any instrument, apparatus, appliance, software, material or other article, whether used alone or in combination, including the software intended by its manufacturer to be used specifically for diagnostic and/or therapeutic purposes and necessary for its proper application, intended by the manufacturer to be used for human beings for the purpose of:

• diagnosis, prevention, monitoring, treatment or alleviation of disease,
• diagnosis, monitoring, treatment, alleviation of or compensation for an injury or handicap,
• investigation, replacement or modification of the anatomy or of a physiological process,
• control of conception,

and which does not achieve its principal intended action in or on the human body by pharmacological, immunological or metabolic means, but which may be assisted in its function by such means;

(b) ‘accessory’ means an article which whilst not being a device is intended specifically by its manufacturer to be used together with a device to enable it to be used in accordance with the use of the device intended by the manufacturer of the device;

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3. Where a device is intended to administer a medicinal product within the meaning of Article 1 of Directive 65/65/EEC, that device shall be governed by the present Directive, without prejudice to the provisions of Directive 65/65/EEC with regard to the medicinal product.

If, however, such a device is placed on the market in such a way that the device and the medicinal product form a single integral product which is intended exclusively for use in the given combination and which is not reusable, that single product shall be governed by Directive 65/65/EEC. The relevant essential requirements of Annex I to the present Directive shall apply as far as safety and performance related device features are concerned.

4. Where a device incorporates, as an integral part, a substance which, if used separately, may be considered to be a medicinal product within the meaning of Article 1 of Directive 65/65/EEC and which is liable to act upon the body with action ancillary to that of the device, that device must be assessed and authorized in accordance with this Directive.

5. This Directive does not apply to:

(a) in vitro diagnostic devices;

(b) active implantable devices covered by Directive 90/385/EEC;

(c) medicinal products covered by Directive 65/65/EEC;

(d) cosmetic products covered by Directive 76/768/EEC (18);

(e) human blood, human blood products, human plasma or blood cells of human origin or to devices which incorporate at the time of placing on the market such blood products, plasma or cells;

(f) transplants or tissues or cells of human origin nor to products incorporating or derived from tissues or cells of human origin;

(g) transplants or tissues or cells of animal origin, unless a device is manufactured utilizing animal tissue which is rendered non-viable or non-viable products derived from animal tissue.

6. This Directive does not apply to personal protective equipment covered by Directive 89/686/EEC. In deciding whether a product falls under that Directive or the present Directive, particular account shall be taken of the principal intended purpose of the product.

7. This Directive is a specific Directive within the meaning of Article 2 (2) of Directive 89/336/EEC.

8. This Directive does not affect the application of Directive 80/836/Euratom, nor of Directive 84/466/Euratom.