A 2009 - 2012 Series Of Investigative Reports Published By The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Exposed Various "Problems" With How Medtronic Went About Boosting Sales Of Infuse
(Posted by Tom Lamb at DrugInjuryWatch.com)
In the second part of this Medtronic Infuse series of articles we want to bring to your attention some of the investigative news reports looking into the serious medical complications and side effects associated with the Infuse Bone Graft that were essentially ignored in Medtronic-funded studies.
As may know, we started this series with "Medtronic Infuse Bone Graft Efficacy And Safety Study By Yale: Widely Anticipated Results Are Set To Be Released In June 2013".
Reporter John Fauber, a news reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, seems to be the journalist who should be credited most for exposing the several problematic aspects of how Medtronic has marketed its Infuse Bone Graft product over the years.
Here is a list of such investigative reports published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from 2009 to 2012, ranging from the Infuse clinical trials to serious conflicts of interest and more:
Medical device maker paid UW surgeon $19 million
Thomas Zdeblick, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, raised eyebrows three years ago when it was learned that he had been receiving $400,000 yearly from the medical device company. But yearly payments actually averaged about 10 times that figure.
Journal editor gets royalties as articles favor devices
In 2002, Thomas Zdeblick, a UW orthopedic surgeon who has pocketed millions of dollars in royalties from the spinal device maker Medtronic, took over as editor-in-chief of a medical journal about spinal disorders. It would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Bone-fusion protein raises questions about doctors' financial stakes
The story of BMP-2 raises questions about whether doctors should be allowed to do clinical trial research involving products that might enrich them or the company they work for.
Doctors question journal articles
Over the last decade, a small group of surgeons has been enlisted by Medtronic to do research or write articles about the company's new spine surgery product. This year alone, many of those doctors received payments of hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars each in royalties for a variety of other Medtronic devices.
Researchers get royalties, papers omit sterility link
Since 2002, Medtronic and a group of doctors with financial ties to the medical device company were aware that a new biological agent used in back surgery was linked to sterility in men. But that crucial information was not revealed in medical journal articles written by those doctors.
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U.S. Senate panel probes Medtronic
A U.S. Senate committee has launched an investigation into reports that doctors with financial ties to the medical device company Medtronic were aware of serious complications with a lucrative spine surgery product yet failed to reveal those problems in medical journal articles.
Journal: Unreported side effects, disclosure failures with Medtronic back product
The entire issue of a medical journal is devoted to a scientific and financial expose of a product, the practices of the company that markets it and the financially conflicted doctors who tested and promoted it.
Articles leave pain in their wake
Patients' excruciating pain is at the center of a growing controversy surrounding the Medtronic and the spine surgery product Infuse that it markets.
Doctors didn't disclose spine product cancer risk in journal
Doctors paid millions of dollars by Medtronic failed to identify a significant cancer risk with the company's spine surgery product in a 2009 paper about results of a large clinical trial. The company and doctors had become aware of information on an additional cancer case, which pushed the concern to a critical level, at least two months before the paper was published, a Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today investigation found.
Medtronic paid millions to influential UW chairman
An orthopedic surgeon at the University of Wisconsin-Madison gets so much money from the medical device firm Medtronic that he is required to meet annually with his department chairman. But the chairman, Thomas Zdeblick, got more than 25 times that amount from Medtronic during the same time.
Senate panel says Medtronic workers ghostwrote papers
Medtronic marketing employees were secretly involved in drafting and editing favorable medical journal articles about the company's lucrative back surgery product, a U.S. Senate investigation reveals.
These Milwaukee Journal Sentinel articles were taken from the Side Effects page of JSOnline.com, the newspaper's web site, where you can find additional resources (such as documents and photos) pertaining to these Medtronic Infuse investigative reports.
We commend this newspaper and reporter John Fauber for developing this Infuse Bone Graft story of apparent corporate misconduct by Medtronic, which is still emerging as we wait for the release of the Yale Infuse Study currently scheduled to be released in June 2013.
P.S. Part 3 of article series: "October 2012 Infuse Bone Senate Investigation Report Criticizes Medtronic For "Ghostwriting" Of Numerous Medical Journal Articles" (5/22/13)
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