GE Healthcare says engineer sent trade secrets to China
September 9, 2014 by Arezu Sarvestani
Officials at GE Healthcare filed a lawsuit against one of their Waukesha, Wisc., engineers after finding out that he copied millions of sensitive files that the company says were not necessary for his role.
Jun Xie joined GE in 2008, writing software for magnetic resonance systems. According to court documents, he began copying proprietary information from around March 2014 to June, and the FBI was on his doorstep by July. Xie admitted to federal officials that he planned to move back to China with his family and that he had copied information that he thought might be personally useful to him later, but maintained that he never planned to share the documents with anyone. Read more
Counterclaims stand in whistleblower lawsuit against Boston Scientific
September 8, 2014 by Brad Perriello
Boston Scientific’s breach-of-contract counterclaims will stand in a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a pair of former customer service employees over the medical device company’s Precision Plus spinal cord stimulation system, a federal judge ruled last week.
Whistleblowers Wendy Bahnsen and Carolina Fuentes in March 2011 accused Boston Scientific of submitting fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid billing claims, concealing defects and denying replacement devices, engaging in a kickbacks scheme and retaliating against employees who raised the red flag about such practices. Read more
Boston Scientific loses $74M pelvic mesh verdict
September 10, 2014 by Brad Perriello
A Dallas jury yesterday ruled that Boston Scientific’s Obtryx pelvic mesh device caused Martha Salazar’s injuries, awarding her $73.5 million in damages in Boston Scientific’s 1st courtroom loss over the vaginal slings, according to news reports.
The Marlborough, Mass.-based medical device company is facing some 12,000 lawsuits in state and federal courts over its pelvic mesh products. Earlier this summer Boston Scientific won the first 2 of the lawsuits to go to trial in a Massachusetts state court. Salazar claimed that the Obtryx device, implanted in 2010 to treat her urinary incontinence, caused nerve damage, persistent pain and infection that her lawyer said prevents her from sitting comfortably and from normal walking or exercise. Read more
DoJ says recorded meeting uncovers kickback scheme at Reliance Medical
September 9, 2014 by Arezu Sarvestani
Federal investigators are pushing forward with claims against Reliance Medical Systems, saying that they have evidence that the company’s owners devised a kickback scheme to induce doctors to use Reliance spinal implants, even sometimes when patients didn’t need the procedure.
The Justice Dept. accused Reliance owners Brett Berry, John Hoffman and Adam Pike of using the company to create a physician-owned distributorship to funnel illegal payments to several physicians to reward them for using Reliance spinal implants. Read more
Allergan caves to shareholder meeting after Valeant, Ackman rally support
September 9, 2014 by Arezu Sarvestani
Embattled aesthetics maker Allergan affirmed this month that it would arrange the shareholder meeting demanded by hostile buyer Valeant Pharmaceuticals and activist investor William Ackman.
Allergan set a Dec. 18. 2014 date for the meeting, saying that the requests gathered by Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management proved legitimate and in sufficient quantity to mandate a meeting against the company’s wishes. Read more
