St. Jude class-action suit decertified
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit on April 9 reverses an order from the U.S. District Court for Minnesota that certified a class of plaintiffs to litigate against St. Jude Medical regarding the firm's Silzone prosthetic heart valve. St. Jude's coated valve was approved in 1998, but was pulled off the market in 2000 after an independent clinical trial identified a small increase in paravalvular leaks (1"The Gray Sheet" March 17, 2008, p. 11). The appeals court held that class action was not appropriate because whether the information on which physicians based their treatment could be traced back to St. Jude "will invariably vary by individual physician" and a "need for such plaintiff-by-plaintiff determinations means that common issues will not predominate the inquiry into St. Jude's liability.
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