UPDATE: Court cuts Biolase board, marketing VP under fire
March 24, 2014 by Arezu Sarvestani
*Updated March 25, 2014 at 10 a.m. Eastern with comment from Biolase sales & marketing vice president Brian Jaffe.
Biolase continues to swat at challenges to its leadership, after a Delaware state judge cut the board of directors and a former employer took a few shots at the dental device maker’s sales & marketing head.
Biolase is enmeshed in a proxy war with activist investor Oracle Partners, which owns a 16.4% stake. Biolase said today that a Delaware court constrained its board of directors to 4 members on a “status quo” basis, pending the outcome of an Oracle lawsuit filed earlier this month. Biolase’s board was originally set at 6 seats; the dispute erupted when Oracle contested CEO Federico Pignatelli’s attempt to revoke the resignations of 2 long-time directors. Read more
Shareholders sue Intuitive Surgical over adverse events, recalls
March 25, 2014 by Brad Perriello
Intuitive Surgical is under fire from shareholders for allegedly under-reporting adverse events associated with its da Vinci surgical robot and concealing at least 3 recalls from the FDA.
Led by the City of Birmingham Relief & Retirement System, the shareholder derivative lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern California accuses Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Intuitive and its board and management of “failing to make a good-faith effort to ensure that Intuitive complied with applicable laws and FDA regulations governing the safety of medical devices designed to protect the health of the American public,” according to court documents. Read more
EU launches investigation into pelvic mesh
March 25, 2014 by Brad Perriello
The European Commission asked a scientific advisory panel to look into the safety of surgical procedures to treat urogynecological conditions using mesh products, which have embroiled their makers in tens of thousands of product liability lawsuits in the U.S.
The EU’s executive body asked its Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks for an opinion on the "safety of surgical meshes used in urogynecological surgery," according to the commission’s request. Read more
Stryker, Alliant settle FCA beef for $1M
March 25, 2014 by Brad Perriello
Stryker and Alliant Enterprises agreed to pay a collective $1 million but admitted no wrongdoing in settling a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that they overcharged the U.S. Veterans Affairs Dept. for medical equipment.
The lawsuit, unsealed this month in the U.S. District Court for Central California, was filed by a 20-year Stryker employee who oversaw national accounts for the medical device maker. Read more
Consumer group wants Holder to probe J&J's document destruction in pelvic mesh lawsuits
March 27, 2014 by Brad Perriello
U.S. attorney general Eric Holder Jr. should open a criminal probe into the destruction of documents in lawsuits filed against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon over its pelvic mesh products, a consumer advocacy group said this week.
Corporate Action Network, which according to its website was “founded to address the imbalance of power between corporations and people,” issued an open letter to Holder calling for the investigation into the documents’ destruction. A federal magistrate judge found earlier this year that Ethicon lost or destroyed documents in the multi-district litigation over its pelvic mesh devices, which are designed to treat pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence in women. Read more