New York Times, "Guidant Consultant Advised Company to Release Data on Defects"

          A consultant to the Guidant Corporation told the company last year that he believed it had a clear ethical obligation to tell physicians about heart device defects, and urged the company to overhaul its practices, newly released court records show.
          In two lengthy memos written just before Guidant was swamped by controversy, the consultant, Dr. Richard N. Fogoros, also told company executives that their decision to withhold such data, while statistically defensible, was questionable. Guidant executives have said they did not publicize defibrillator flaws because they believed that patients faced greater risks from replacement surgery than from the units.
          But Dr. Fogoros wrote in one memo that Guidant, while believing it was acting in the patients' best interest, had violated a "sacred obligation" it had to doctors by interposing its medical judgment for theirs. He also noted that Guidant had a clear conflict of interest that would naturally lead it to disclose product failures only when "absolutely necessary."

For more information on Guidant heart device defects and associated lawsuits, please visit our Guidant-specific companion site, www.guidant-recall-lawsuit.com.