Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that patients can sue pharmaceutical companies in state courts, the ability to sue makers of medical-devices might not be far behind.<\/p>\n
Congressional Democrats have proposed making it easier to sue manufacturers of medical devices. Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate have introduced legislation that would allow product liability suits in state courts by patients who claim to have been harmed by certain defective medical devices, such as heart valves and artificial knees.<\/p>\n
The Medical Device Safety Act of 2009 would overturn the Court’s 2008 ruling in Riegel v. Medtronic, which dismissed a lawsuit over a ruptured catheter. That ruling brought whoops of joy from medical device firms, who had long lobbied for a position that federal law blocked, or preempted, such suits. But the Supreme Court changed the landscape yesterday in Wyeth v. Levine when it upheld a $6.7 million state jury verdict won (more…)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that patients can sue pharmaceutical companies in state courts, the ability to sue makers of medical-devices might not be far behind. Congressional Democrats have proposed making it easier to sue manufacturers of…<\/span><\/p>\n