About Regulatory Academy

The school this profession never had.

An independent online school for the people who bring drugs, biologics, and medical devices to the world. Structured mini-courses. Plain language. Every claim sourced to the primary record. All of it free.

Chapter 01 — The Problem

Nobody is taught regulatory affairs.

There is no degree that makes you ready, no residency, no bar exam. The people responsible for the most consequential decisions in life science are expected to assemble their own education — after hours, alone, from whatever they can find.

What they find is scattered. It works, eventually, for some people. It is nobody’s idea of a school.

forum threads conference slides vendor webinars guesswork the person at the next desk
A professional studying alone at night in a library, surrounded by open books and papers
Alone, after hours. How the profession actually learns today

Chapter 02 — The Method

Courses. Only courses.

We publish nothing loose — no article graveyard, no content mill. Every subject becomes a mini-course: five focused lessons in a deliberate order, closed by a quiz. Sequence is what turns information into competence. Here is a real one:

Chapter 03 — The Standard

Four rules govern everything we publish.

01Courses, not content.

A beginning, an order, an end. Nothing is ever published loose.

02The primary record, always.

The regulation, the statute, the guidance — linked, not paraphrased.

03Plain language, full depth.

Written like a good mentor explains. No jargon walls, no dumbing down.

04Free means free.

No paywall, no lead-gate, no trial clock. Open to anyone, always.

From Lesson 2 — Substantial EquivalenceThe standard, in practice

A 510(k) does not ask whether your device is safe in the abstract. It asks whether the device is substantially equivalent to a legally marketed predicate — same intended use, and either the same technological characteristics or differences that raise no new questions of safety and effectiveness.⁠[1]

See the primary sources behind that sentence
FD&C Act §513(i)(1)(A)The statutory definition of substantial equivalence — intended use, technological characteristics, and the “new questions of safety and effectiveness” test.
21 CFR 807.87The required contents of a premarket notification — what your file must actually contain when you make that claim.
Handwritten chemistry notes on a clipboard beside laboratory glassware
The source, not someone’s summary of it. Every citation goes to the record itself

Chapter 04 — The Promise

The seats are free. All of them.

The fundamentals of this profession should not sit behind a paywall — the world is safer when the people doing this work are well taught. So the Academy’s door stays open, and a new course drops every month, announced first in the Academy Briefing.

No paywall

Every lesson of every course, readable by anyone, start to finish.

No login

No account, no gated PDF, no “enter your work email to continue.”

No upsell

The course is the product. There is no “full version” waiting behind it.

A professor lecturing a group of students in a large university hall with many open seats
No tuition. No enrollment window. No catch. A new course every month
Next lesson: your first one

Class is in session.

Five lessons on how medical devices actually reach the U.S. market, from choosing a predicate to clearance day. Your seat is already paid for.

Start the course
SyllabusThe 510(k) Pathway
1Traditional, Special & Abbreviated
2Substantial Equivalence
3Choosing the Predicate
4Building the File
5Submission to Clearance
The Quiz
Free · Self-paced · No loginBegin