| Guidant News |
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Greg Monforton and Partners provides the latest news on the Guidant lawsuit and
recall.
Most of the news stories below require Adobe Acrobat to view. |
Canadian Court Gives Go-Ahead to Guidant Lawsuit 
Reuters | April 10, 2008
A Canadian court has given the go-ahead to a class action lawsuit against Guidant Corp. that alleges the U.S. company knew of defects in its line of defibrillators, lawyers sai on Thursday.
Lawyers involved in the lawsuit said the Ontario Superior Court certified the suit in a decision release on Thursday. |
Cardiac Device Lawsuit Gets Local Interest
The Telegram | June 6, 2007
A national class-action lawsuit against a maker of faulty defibrillators and pacemakershas drawn interest from people in this province.
But it's too early to tell exactly how many from Newfoundland and Labrador will qualify as part of the class if the suit against Guidant Corp. proceeds and compensation is awarded.
Brad Robitaille, a managing partner with Greg Monforton and Partners in Windsor, Ont., said his firm has received correspondence from "about a half-dozen" residents of this province. |
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Guidant Woes a Tough Pill for Boston Scientific to Take
Globe and Mail | June 29, 2006
Sometimes the best acquisitions are the ones that don't get made.
Just ask U.S. consumer and health product giant Johnson & Johnson, which earlier this
year lost a long and tangled takeover battle for medical device manufacturer Guidant
Corp. to Boston Scientific Corp. J&J walked away with a $705 million (U.S.) break fee,
and moved on with a smile ot buy Pfizer Inc.'s consumer health products unit for $16.6
billion just this week.
By contrast, Boston Scientific, which laid out $27.5 billion in cash and shares for
Guidant, has bought itself what, so far, looks like a massive and costly series of headaches,
in the form of product recalls and lawsuits. |
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Second Recall Issued
for Guidant Heart Devices
CTV.ca | June 27, 2006
Boston Scientific Corp. on Monday recalled nearly 23,000 pacemakers and defibrillators
that could fail because of an electrical flaw, and the company asked doctors to check
27,000 patients already implanted with potentially faulty devices.
The announced marked the second time Boston Scientific has issued a warning about products
of the former Guidant Corp. since the Natick, Mass.-based company bought Guidant in April
for $27 billion. |
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Guidant's Warning Letter on Defibrillators Never Sent
Globe and Mail | June 8, 2006
Newly unsealed court documents show Guidant Corp. drafted a letter warning doctors of
a dangerous electrical malfunction in some of its devices designed to restore a normal
heartbeat, but the letter was never sent. |
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Inquiry Arranged by Guidant May Aid Lawsuits and Critics
The New York Times | March 22, 2006
The Guidant Corporation may have gotten more than it bargained
for when it appointed a panel last year to look into its practices after it came under
scrutiny for its failure to publicize flaws in its heart devices.
The 12-member panel
not only urged the company to overhaul its disclosure process, but its full report, released
yesterday, may provide plaintiffs' lawyers suing Guidant with a road map and may also
help government agencies that are investigating the device maker. |
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Guidant Discloses Lawsuit Tally, Says Many More Possible
MarketWatch | February 22, 2006
Medical device maker Guidant Corp. is facing about 145 individual lawsuits, around
60 class-action suits, and could face thousands of additional suits down the road over
problems with heart devices that became public last year, according to a regulatory filing
made Wednesday.
Guidant said it's also facing six lawsuits in Canada. The lawsuit tally has grown, as
Guidant said in an early November SEC filing that it faced about 50 individual suits
and about 45 product liability class-action suits. |
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Guidant Woes Mounting: More
Device Recalls
Boston Herald | January 24, 2006
Guidant Corp., the object of a hotly contested bidding war between Boston Scientific
and Johnson & Johnson, yesterday expanded its pacemaker recall and said other devices
may have a problem.
Guidant yesterday issued an advisory to doctors saying that it found that 145 problems
have been reported out of 16,000 pacemakers, raising the failure rate to a range of 0.31
percent to 0.88 percent from a range of 0.17 percent to 0.51 percent. |
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Guidant Debated Device Peril
The New York Times | January 20, 2006
Six months before the Guidant Corporation publicly disclosed short circuits in its heart
devices, a debate may have been going on within the company over whether to alert doctors
about such failures, internal documents released yesterday suggest. |
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Report: More Deaths Linked to Guidant
CNN | December 14, 2005
Guidant Corporation has notified the Food and Drug Administration of several new reports
about recent patient deaths associated with short circuits in its heart devices, according
to a published report. |
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Guidant Served With Subpoenas
The Indianapolis Star | October 26, 2005
Guidant Corp. said it was served with subpoenas from U.S. Attorney's offices in Boston
and Minneapolis seeking documents concerning pacemakers, defibrillators and related products. |
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Physicians Want Transparency as Guidant
Lawsuits Grow
Canadian Medical Association Journal | October
11, 2005
Canadian physicians who implant cardiac defibrillators are calling on Guidant Corporation
and other manufacturers to notify doctors and patients as soon as device failures occur.
On August 22, lawyers James Newland, Brian Moher and Greg Monforton filed
a class-action lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against Guidant Corporation,
Guidant Canada, and subsidiaries.
"These are people who have a life-threatening condition to begin with, so on top of
that, you're layering not only the risks and trauma, both physical and psychological
associated with future surgery, but also the dread," Monforton said
of his clients. |
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Implant Program for Heart Device Was a Sales
Spur
The New York Times | September 27, 2005
By January, about 80 cardiologists nationwide completed an evaluation run by the Guidant
Corporation of one of its products, an improved electrical component, known as a lead,
that connects an implanted cardiac device to the heart. |
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Guidant Says Some Pacemakers Could Fail
CNN | September 22, 2005
Guidant Corp. said Thursday it has identified two separate problems with two models
of its implantable pacemakers that could lead to device failure.
The problems involve its Insignia and Nexus pacemakers, which treat hearts that beat
too slowly. The problems follow a spate of device failures and recalls by the company
involving its most lucrative products. |
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Law Firms Band Together in $500 Million
Battle Against Guidant
Greg Monforton and Partners | September 8, 2005
Three leading law firms in Quebec and Ontario have combined forces in a national class
action lawsuit on behalf of all Canadians who have received potentially defective defibrillators
and pacemakers manufactured by Guidant Corporation. |
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FDA Expanding Inquiry Into Heart-Device Company
The New York Times | August 25, 2005
The Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that it would conduct an extensive inspection
of the manufacturing facilities of the Guidant Corporation, a maker of implantable heart
devices that is under scrutiny for the way it disclosed product problems. |
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Herbert Bruce Heron v. Guidant
Corporation et al.
Ontario Superior Court of Justice | August 22,
2005
Greg Monforton and Partners and Lerners LLP has commenced a class action lawsuit against
Guidant Corporation for injuries caused by defective heart defibrillator and pacemaker
medical devices. |
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Class Action Seeks Changes in
Implant Tracking
CTV.ca | August 8, 2005
A class action suit being filed this week seeks redress for Canadians who have received
potentially defective defibrillators and pacemakers.
"The company knew of significant problems with certain models of defibrillators and
pacemakers yet did nothing to warn medical professionals and patients of these problems," personal
injury lawyer Greg Monforton said in a statement announcing the class
action. |
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Guidant Faces National Class Action Lawsuits
Greg Monforton and Partners | August 8, 2005
Windsor personal injury lawyer Greg Monforton today announced that his law firm has
partnered with Toronto lawyer James Newland of Lerners
LLP to commence a national class action lawsuit on behalf of all Canadians who have
received potentially defective defibrillators and pacemakers manufactured by Guidant
Corporation. |
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Health Canada Advises Canadians About Risks
Associated with Guidant Pacemakers
Health Canada | August 4, 2005
Health Canada is advising Canadians who have implanted PULSAR MAX, PULSAR, DISCOVERY,
MERIDIAN, PULSAR MAX II, DISCOVERY II, and CONTAK TR pacemakers, manufactured by Guidant
Canada Corporation, that certain units may be prone to a gradual deterioration of a seal
in the device. This may lead to premature battery depletion and malfunction of the pacemakers.
Health Canada was informed of the recall of these devices by the manufacturer on July
15, 2005. |
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New Report of Problems at Guidant
The New York Times | July 30, 2005
About two weeks before a college student with a flawed heart device in March, another
heart patient implanted with the same model that also failed almost died, according to
a government filing by the device's maker, the Guidant Corporation. |
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Warning Issued for Guidant Device Fix
The Indianapolis Star | July 23, 2005
In another quality-control stumble, Guidant Corp. revised one of its defibrillator recall
advisories Friday, saying the recommended fix actually could worsen risks for some patients. |
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Guidant Revises Recommendations
on ICDs
Washington Post | July 22, 2005
Guidant Corp. on Friday revised its recommendations about how to handle problems with
some of its recalled implantable heart devices because of increased risk to patients. |
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The Controversy Over
Guidant's Implantable Defibrillators
The New England Journal of Medicine | July 21,
2005
On October 4, 2001, Joshua Oukrop, a Minnesota teenager with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
and a high risk of sudden death from ventricular fibrillation, received an implantable
cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). The device was a Ventak Prizm 2 Dr Model 1861 manufactured
by Guidant (Indianapolis). After it was implanted, Ouktrop's physicians at the Minneapolis
Heart Institute foundation checked it every three months (most recently on January 31,
2005) and found no problems.
On March 14, 2005, Oukrop, then a 21-year-old college student, collapsed and died in
a remote area of southeastern Utah during a spring-break bicycling trip with his girlfriend. |
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Guidant Says 28,000 Pacemakers May Need
Replacement
Bloomberg | July 18, 2005
Guidant Corp., the heart-device maker that recalled 100,000 defibrillators last month,
said doctors should consider replacing cardiac pacemakers implanted in the chests of
28,000 people worldwide. |
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Thousands of Guidant Heart Defibrillators
Being Recalled
Canadian Press | June 20, 2005
Guidant Corp. is voluntarily recalling nearly 50,000 of its cardiac defibrillators,
implanted in patients worldwide, because of potential malfunctions in the devices, the
company said Friday.
Indianapolis-based Guidant said it was advising doctors about the safety of several
defibrillator models, which have failed at least 45 times and have caused at least two
deaths through May 30. |
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Citing Flaws, Maker Recalls Heart Devices
The New York Times | June 18, 2005
The Guidant Corporation said yesterday that it was recalling about 29,000 implanted
heart devices because of flaws that might cause them to short-circuit when they are supposed
to deliver a potentially life-saving shock.
The recall, which comes at the urging of the Food and Drug Administration, involves
three models of defibrillators made by Guidant. In the case of one model, the Ventak
Prizm 2 Dr Model 1861, Guidant did not tell doctors for more than three years that it
was prone to electrical failure because of a design flaw. The company also disclosed
yesterday for the first time that two other Guidant units had also repeatedly short-circuited. |
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Guidant Initiates Worldwide Physician
Communications
Guidant Corporation | June 17, 2005
Guidant Corporation said today it is voluntarily advising physicians about important
safety information regarding certain devices. Guidant has apprised FDA of these actions,
and FDA has indicated that it will classify them as recalls. These communications advise
physicians and their patients of safety information and are intended to limit adverse
events. Physicians should use this information to decide how best to treat their patients. |
| Guidant Lawsuit |
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Greg Monforton and Partners is handling legal claims on behalf of those injured by defective
Guidant heart devices.
If you or a loved one has been injured by a Guidant defibrillator or pacemaker, we invite
you to contact us for a free, confidential consultation about your legal rights. We
will represent clients throughout Canada in lawsuits against Guidant.
For more news about the Guidant lawsuit, please complete
our online form. |
