Schouest v. Medtronic, Inc.

13 F. Supp. 3d 692, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38123, 2014 WL 1213243
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedMarch 24, 2014
DocketCivil Action No. 3:13-CV-203
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 13 F. Supp. 3d 692 (Schouest v. Medtronic, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Schouest v. Medtronic, Inc., 13 F. Supp. 3d 692, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38123, 2014 WL 1213243 (S.D. Tex. 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

GREGG COSTA, District Judge.

Plaintiffs seeking to bring state law claims against the manufacturer of a medical device that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved must navigate a narrow path between two federal preemption doctrines. If the claims rely on state law that imposes duties different from or in addition to federal requirements, express preemption bars the claims. See Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc., 552 U.S. 312, 316, 128 S.Ct. 999, 169 L.Ed.2d 892 (2008). While state law claims that impose obligations parallel to federal requirements escape express preemption, such claims are impliedly preempted, and can only be brought by the FDA in its enforcement capacity, if they would not exist absent the federal regulatory scheme. See Buckman Co. v. Plaintiffs’ Legal Comm., 531 U.S. 341, 347-48, 353, 121 S.Ct. 1012, 148 L.Ed.2d 854 (2001).

Relying primarily on these Supreme Court preemption rulings, Defendant Med-tronic seeks dismissal of this lawsuit that challenges the use of its Infuse device in an “off-label” procedure — that is, in a way not expressly approved by the FDA. Plaintiff Susan Schouest asserts various state causes of action against Medtronic, most of which rely on allegations that it fraudulently promoted the off-label use of the Infuse device or failed to warn physicians that off-label use could be dangerous. The Court must therefore determine which, if any, of her state tort claims are able to navigate the path between express and implied preemption and emerge unscathed.

I. Background 1

A. FDA Oversight Of Medical Devices

Under the Medical Device Amendment (MDA) to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), the FDA has the authority to regulate medical devices. If a device “supports] or sustain[s] human life” or “presents a potential unreasonable risk of illness or injury,” it is designated a “Class III” device. 21 U.S.C. § 360c(a)(l)(C)(ii). New Class III devices must receive pre-market approval (PMA) from the FDA before they can be sold. To obtain that approval, a manufacturer must submit a detailed application that contains “specimens of labeling proposed to be used for such device.” § 360e(c)(l); Riegel, 552 U.S. at 317-18, 128 S.Ct. 999. The FDA reviews the device’s labeling to evaluate the “safety and effectiveness under the conditions of use set forth on the label.” Id. at 318, 128 S.Ct. 999 (citing [697]*697§ 360c(a)(2)(B)). It also “must determine that the proposed labeling is neither false nor misleading.” Id. (citing § 360e(d)(l)(A)). After this evaluation, the FDA “grants premarket approval only if it finds there is a ‘reasonable assurance’ of the device’s ‘safety and effectiveness.’ ” Id. (citing § 360e(d)). “Once a device has received [premarket] approval, the manufacturer cannot make changes to any feature of the device without obtaining FDA permission.” Hughes v. Boston Scientific Corp., 631 F.3d 762, 765-66 (5th Cir.2011) (citing § 360e(d)(6)).

B. FDA Approval Of The Infuse Device

In January 2001, Defendants Medtronic Inc. and Medtronic Sofamor Danek USA, Inc. (collectively “Medtronic”) filed a pre-market approval application for the INFUSE Bone Graft product, which the FDA categorized as a Class III medical device. The Infuse device utilizes an injured person’s bone-building cells to stimulate bone growth in a process referred to as bone grafting. After an extensive review that lasted over a year and a half, the FDA approved the Infuse device for limited use in spinal fusion surgeries. The Infuse device consists of two component parts: (1) the LT-CAGE® Lumbar Tapered Fusion Device Component, which is a hollow metal cylinder, and (2) the Infuse Bone Graft Component, which includes an absorbable collagen sponge that carries a genetically-engineered liquid bone protein (rhBMP-2). Docket Entry No. 1 ¶ 9.

According to the Infuse device’s FDA-approved labeling, the device can only be used in an anterior lumbar interbody procedure, involving a single-level fusion in the L4-S1 region of the lumbar spine. This approval was limited to the use of rhBMP-2 in combination with the LT-Cage. Schouest alleges that despite knowing that the Infuse device could be dangerous if not used in that limited manner, Medtronic actively promoted off-label use of the Infuse device by “providing doctors with information about other doctors using the product off-label” and directing its “sales force personnel to provide doctors with fraudulent, deceptive, incomplete and/or incorrect information and instruction” concerning the off-label applications of the Infuse device. Id. ¶ 19. For instance, Medtronic allegedly paid “key opinion leaders” to author articles about the Infuse device’s efficacy and safety when used off-label without disclosing those relationships. Medtronic allegedly encouraged one doctor to represent that using the Infuse device off-label was safer and superior to any existing alternatives. Docket Entry No. 1 ¶¶ 24, 40.

This promotion had an impact. Off-label uses of the Infuse device generate significant revenue for Medtronic: “close to 90% of the $800 million dollars in revenue” that the Infuse device produced in 2011. Ramirez v. Medtronic Inc., 961 F.Supp.2d 977, 982 (D.Ariz.2013), clarified on denial of reconsideration, 2013 WL 4007811. This met with controversy even before the wave of lawsuits, including this one, brought by patients allegedly injured by off-label use of the Infuse device. For instance, the official journal of the North American Spine Society, The Spine Journal, dedicated an entire 2011 issue to the risks of using the Infuse device. Docket Entry No. 1 ¶22. And after a 16-month investigation, the Senate Committee on Finance issued a 2,315-page report criticizing Medtronic for its heavy involvement in “drafting, editing and shaping the content of medical journal articles authored by its physician consultants who received significant amounts of money through royalties and consulting fees from Medtronic.” Staff of S. Comm, on Finance, 112th Cong., Staff Report on Medtronic’s Influence on [698]*698Infuse Clinical Studies 6 (Comm. Print 2012).

C. Schouest’s Surgery

In December 2006, before this public controversy concerning off-label use of the Infuse device, Schouest underwent a lami-nectomy and discectomy and multilevel in-terbody fusion. To achieve fusion, her surgeon used a posterior approach, mixing rhBNP-2 with allograft and placing the mixture inside a Hollywood cage rather than the FDA-approved LT-Cage. In other words, the doctors performed an off-label procedure with the Infuse device.

In June 2009, Schouest was diagnosed with bony overgrowth and a host of other injuries arising out of the surgery, for which she has had to undergo additional extensive medical treatment.

D. Schouest’s Claims

Schouest asserts nine state law claims, including negligence, strict liability, breach of express and implied warranties, and fraud.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
13 F. Supp. 3d 692, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38123, 2014 WL 1213243, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schouest-v-medtronic-inc-txsd-2014.