Spinal Cord Injury Device Causes Conflict Of Interest For NJ Doctors
An announcement was made on May 6, 2009, by the New Jersey Attorney General that a settlement has reached with a medical device maker accused of not disclosing the financial conflicts of interest among doctors researching a product that is used to help treat spinal cord injuries.
As personal injury attorneys, we believe that when the manufacture of a medical device hides its business practices with doctors, usually there is the potential for their devices to be found out as having product liabilities or to be defective products. These defective products often are the cause of pain and suffering, emotional trauma, and physical disabilities. These types of products put users at risk of personal injury or even wrongful death if their harmful side-effects are made available for injured persons to review before using.
This particular device could make spinal cord injuries worse, possibly leading to paralysis (paraplegia and quadriplegia).
In 2008, a handful of surgeons conducted the clinical studies that lead to the ProDisc device’s approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to confidential information from a personal injury lawsuit that was settled in 2007, half of the research centers who performed the study employed doctors who stood to profit from ProDisc’s success. How can these paid pharmaceutical drug company doctors not be biased?
Synthes, the producers of the ProDisc artificial spinal disk, has been ordered by the most recent medical malpractice settlement to release any and all future payments or investments held by physicians involved in researching its spinal cord injury device. The New Jersey attorney general concluded that a significant number of state physicians had investments in Synthes’ spinal cord injury product and that the company failed to inform the FDA of the conflict of interest that existed.
Being personal injury attorneys, we believe that manufactures and doctors should be upfront about their relationship when it comes to the approval of devices used to treat spinal cord injuries. A financial partnership should not be put above a patient’s well-being and keeping them free from personal injury.
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