MDT’s Ev3 pays $1.3m in whistleblower suit | Medtech legal news for the week of February 16, 2015

Medtronic's new Ev3 unit pays $1.3m in whistleblower suit

February 6, 2015 by Brad Perriello

The Ev3 subsidiary Medtronic acquired along with Covidien yesterday delivered good news and bad: FDA clearance for a new aneurysm treatment and a $1.25 million hit in a whistleblower lawsuit.

The U.S. Justice Dept. said Medtronic agreed to the settlement without admitting any wrongdoing. The qui tam lawsuit, filed by former sales rep Amanda Cashi, alleged that Ev3 acquisition FoxHollow Technologies urged hospitals to bill Medicare for inpatient procedures in atherectomies performed using its Silver Fox device. Read more

Medtronic settles another whistleblower suit for $2.8m

February 6, 2015 by Brad Perriello

Medtronic agreed to settle another whistleblower lawsuit with the U.S. Justice Dept., putting up $2.8 million but admitting no wrongdoing in the off-label promotion case.

Federal prosecutors, based on a qui tam lawsuit filed by former Medtronic sales rep Jason Nickell, accused the Fridley, Minn.-based company of promoting the off-label use of its neurostimulators for subcutaneous peripheral nerve field stimulation. Read more

Ex-NFL great Gault must face SEC fraud charges

February 10, 2015 by Mark Hollmer

Willie Gault, the ex-NFL wide receiver who played for the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Raiders, can’t shake a case against him alleging he played a role in a 5-year fraud scheme to inflate the share price at a heart monitor device company.

A federal judge in California refused to throw out 3 U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission claims against Gault. The football great, along with Heart Tronics/Signalife ex-outside counsel Mitchell Stein and others, is charged with illegally pumping up the company’s stock price. Read more

Appeals court upholds Abiomed win in shareholders lawsuit

February 9, 2015 by Brad Perriello

Abiomed logged another win in a shareholders lawsuit accusing it and its management of misleading investors over the prospects for its flagship Impella 2.5 heart pump.

Danvers, Mass.-based Abiomed fielded several lawsuits brought by shareholders after a pair of FDA warning letters in 2010 and 2011 sent its share price plummeting. Read more

Pelvic mesh lawsuits: Boston Scientific wants 700 Philly cases sent to federal court

February 12, 2015 by Brad Perriello

Boston Scientific wants some 700 product liability lawsuits filed over its pelvic mesh products removed from a Philadelphia court to the federal court in West Virginia that’s overseeing the multi-district litigation involving Boston and several other pelvic mesh makers.

A year and a day ago Judge Arnold New, director of the Complex Litigation Center at the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, ordered that “all currently filed pelvic mesh matters shall be transferred to the Complex Litigation Center Pelvic Mesh Mass Tort Program” for coordination. Read more