Science

A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against St. Jude Medical Inc in St.Paul, MN, who is accused of  inflating the cost of replacement pacemakers and defibrillators purchased by the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

The whistleblowers will receive $730,000 from the settlement amount.

The case, filed in August 2008, alleged that St. Jude actively marketed its pacemakers and defibrillators by touting the generous credits available should a device need to be replaced while covered under warranty. At the same time, St. Jude allegedly knew that it failed to grant appropriate credits to the purchasers of devices in a large number of cases where a product was replaced while still under warranty. As a result, the United States contended that St. Jude submitted invoices to Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and Department of Defense military treatment facilities that overstated the cost for replacement pacemakers or defibrillators.

A settlement has been reached in a whistleblower class action lawsuit brought against St. Jude Medical Inc of St. Paul, MN who is accused of paying kickbacks to induce physicians to implant the company’s pacemakers and defibrillators.

The whistleblower will recover a $2.64 million share of the government's settlement.

Originally filed in July 2006, the United States allged that St. Jude used three post-market studies and a device registry as vehicles to pay participating physicians kickbacks to induce them to implant St. Jude pacemakers and defibrillators. Although St. Jude collected data and information from participating physicians, it is alleged that the company knowingly and intentionally used the studies and registry as a means of increasing its device sales by paying certain physicians to select St. Jude pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillator for their patients. In each case, St. Jude paid each participating physician a fee that ranged up to $2,000 per patient. The United States alleged that St. Jude solicited physicians for the studies in order to retain their business and/or convert their business from a competitor’s product.