Since March 25, there have been two key developments in lawsuits involving spine medtech companies.
1. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Medtronic can’t be sued by a man who alleged the company’s spinal cord stimulator malfunctioned, according to a document filed March 25. A patient sought damages when he had a Medtronic spinal cord stimulator implanted in 2021 and later experienced a malfunction.
The district court dismissed his claim since he failed to provide evidence that established “Medtronic’s claimed misrepresentation—that he would receive the smart tablet with a software program downloaded onto it that controlled his SCS—had a public impact.” Claims of negligence were also dismissed because Mr. Hunt failed to present expert evidence to establish breach of duty and causation.
2. Three lawsuits were filed March 23 alleging Nevro’s spinal cord stimulators are defectively designed and made patient’s chronic pain worse. The lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and they raise concerns about how the devices were programmed and marketed. Nevro did not respond to a March 31 request for comment from Becker’s.
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