Section 20
General prerequisites for clinical investigations
(1) Clinical investigations of medical devices may only be commenced in Germany, if the
responsible ethics committee has issued a favourable opinion on the clinical investigation pursuant
to Section 22 and the competent higher federal authority has authorised it pursuant to
Section 22a. In the case of clinical investigations of medical devices with a negligible safety risk,
the competent higher federal authority can waive the need for an authorisation. Details of this
procedure are regulated in an ordinance pursuant to Section 37, sub-section 2a. Clinical investigations
of medical devices may only be performed on human beings if and as long as:
1. the risks to the person on whom they are to be performed are medically justifiable when
weighed against the medical device's potential significance for medicine,
1a. a sponsor or his/her representative whose registered place of business is in a Member
State of the European Union or in another State Party to the Agreement on the European
Economic Area, is present,
2. the person on whom they are to be performed has granted consent after having been informed
of the nature, significance and implications of the clinical investigation by a physician
or by a dentist, in the case of medical devices intended for use in dentistry, and with
this consent at the same time declares that he/she agrees with the recording of healthrelated
data within the framework of the clinical investigation and with the inspection of
such data for the purpose of verifications by the sponsor’s representative or the competent
authority,
3. the person on whom they are to be performed has not been committed to an institution by
virtue of an order issued either by the courts or by an authority,
4. the clinical investigation is conducted in a suitable facility and by an appropriately qualified
investigator and under the responsibility of either an appropriately qualified and specialThe
Act on Medical Devices non-official translation
(Medical Devices Act)
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