Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Medtronic, Inc. has acknowledged that they are the subject of multiple federal investigations regarding their marketing practices and the recent Sprint Fidelis defibrillator lead recall. The Senate Finance Committee and the Justice Department have both asked the company for information as part of investigations of wrongdoing. They also face thousands of potential lawsuits from individuals who received one of the defective wires, which are used to connect implantable defibrillators to the heart.

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Medtronic, Inc., the maker of the defective Sprint Fidelis Defibrillator Lead, is the now the subject of two separate investigations. A Senate panel wants information about Medtronic’s October Sprint Fidelis Defibrillator Lead recall, while a second investigation by the US Justice Department is looking into allegations that Medtronic made illegal payments to foreign physicians.
Medtronic suspended sales of the Sprint Fidelis Leads after receiving reports of 5 fatalities linked to lead fractures. A lead is a wire that connects an implantable defibrillator to the heart. It is through the lead that a defibrillator is able to sense when a patient’s heart rhythm is out of sync. When it breaks, the defibrillator can emit a massive and painful shock. And in the worse case scenario, the fractured lead can prevent a defibrillator from sending a necessary, lifesaving shock to the heart.

Following the recall, it was learned that Medtronic had been receiving reports that indicated the Sprint Fidelis Lead had a higher-than-normal fracture rate for months. The incident has raised questions about the Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulation of medical devices, and of the Medtronic’s response to early reports of lead problems.

Medtronic has acknowledged in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing that the Senate Finance Committee has requested information about ties between the medical-device industry and practicing physicians and information about Medtronic’s suspended distribution of its Sprint Fidelis family of defibrillation leads. The Senate panel is probing the FDA’s oversight of medical-device components.

Medtronic said in the same SEC filing that it is the subject of a Justice Department probe into illegal physician payments. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania asked for information on payments or gifts to physicians or physician’s groups related to the purchase of the company’s cardiac stents and cardiac-therapy devices.

The U.S. attorney also asked Medtronic to provide documents related to its relationship with a specific customer. The customer wasn’t identified in the SEC filing. In September, the SEC began an informal probe of Medtronic, seeking information about possible violations of the Corrupt Foreign Practices Act, which is meant to stop bribes to foreign officials.

This is not the first time Medtronic’s relationships with physicians has come under scrutiny. Earlier this year, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, requested information from Medtronic about the company’s payments to orthopedic surgeons, and questioned whether they improperly influenced physician decisions about which products to use.

Monetary agreements with physician consultants are common in the medical device industry, where doctors are paid for their work developing products and then, in some cases, for helping to train other doctors in how to use the products. Medtronic insists that it only provides physicians with compensation that is fair, relative to current market values, and is compliant with the law.

December 6th, 2007 by Staff with NewsInferno.com

Medtronic, Inc., the maker of the faulty Sprint Fidelis Defibrillator Lead and several other defective medical devices, will try to convince the US Supreme Court that people injured by dangerous medical devices and drugs should not be allowed to sue manufacturers if those products have been approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

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The Medtronic recall and the concern being expressed about the St. Jude Riata leads has left patients in fear that they have defective defibrillator lead wires in their chest that cannot be removed. Both Medtronic and the FDA have suggested that for most patients, removing the leads is not the best option because of the risks associated with the removal.

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Jane Adams has been dealing with Medtronic since 1999. Prior to having her defibrillator implanted, she trusted the medical device company. However, since a defibrillator with Sprint Fidelis leads was implanted, Adams says she has lost faith in them.

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Medtronic Inc. has had to go back to an old-reliable in the wake of last month’s Sprint Fidelis Defibrillator Lead recall. In order to continue to meet the demand for defibrillator lead wires, Medtronic has begun supplying health care providers with the Sprint Fidelis‘ predecessor, the Sprint Quattro. The Sprint Quattro Defibrillator Lead is a thicker wire than the recalled Sprint Fidelis, and for some time before the recall, it was becoming apparent that the older Sprint Quattro model was safer than new Medtronic lead.

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Medtronic issued the recall of leads in October, amid mounting evidence that a small percentage of the leads were fracturing. Those fractures caused some patients to receive unneccessary shocks from their defibrillators, while other patients did not receive a lifesaving shock when they had a slow heart rhythm. The lead failures may have contributed to five deaths.

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Shares of medical device maker St. Jude Medical could face pressure Monday on a media report that raised safety concerns over some of its defibrillator wires.

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More lawsuits have been filed against Medtronic related to its defective Sprint Fidelis leads. Two Kansas residents have filed class action lawsuits alleging that Medtronic was negligent in the design of its Sprint Fidelis Leads. Both lawsuits also allege that Medtronic failed to warn patients about the possible defects in a timely manner.

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Two area residents have filed federal class-action lawsuits over malfunctions they said could occur in Medtronic Inc. heart defibrillators implanted in more than a quarter-million patients.

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