3 novembre 2005 19:34
Spitzer alleges defect in Guidant's life-saving defibrillators
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Guidant shares fell Thursday after New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer accused the company of failing to inform physicians about a potentially fatal mechanical flaw in some of its surgically implanted heart defibrillators.
Spitzer filed the civil lawsuit Wednesday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan against the maker of medical devices.
"We wouldn't permit this type of conduct in connection with the sale of cars or washing machines," Spitzer said. "It is simply unconscionable that it occurred with a critical medical device."
Shares of Guidant dropped $3.15, or 5.2%, to $57.25 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. They fell $2.70 to $60.40 on Wednesday following the announcement by Johnson & Johnson that it might abandon its planned $25.4 billion acquisition of the company.
Spitzer's suit may prove to be the "straw that broke the camel's back" in the proposed merger, said Professor Anthony Sabino of St. John's University business school. The deal "is either dead or close to it."
Since June, Guidant has recalled or issued warnings about 88,000 heart defibrillators and almost 200,000 pacemakers because of reported malfunctions.
Spitzer accuses the Indianapolis-based company of failing to disclose a flaw in its Ventak Prizm 2 DR Model 1861 cardio defibrillator. The device is surgically implanted into a patient who is at high risk of death because of an abnormal heart rhythm.
The defibrillator uses electric shocks to restore the heart beat to normal, but a heart could stop if the device fails.
The attorney general claims Guidant discovered the flaw in February 2002 in some models that short circuited. Spitzer notes the company made some engineering changes months later, but continued to sell the version of the model that hadn't been corrected.
Guidant spokesman Steven Tragash said Thursday that the company doesn't comment on litigation.
The company didn't acknowledge the problem with the early model until May 2005, just before the flaw was to be revealed in a newspaper article. In June, Guidant recalled about 13,900 devices made before April 2002.
Spitzer claims the model has failed 28 times and one patient died as a result. He seeks fuller disclosure of the problem and restitution to patients and their families as well as recovery of the company's profit from the uncorrected devices.
Shares of Johnson & Johnson, which makes medicines, skin and baby care products, rose 20 cents to $61.50 in trading on the NYSE.
gigi/Karen...to bad he did include faulty breast implants also!
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2005-11-03-spitzer-guidant_x.htm?csp=34
