A lesser-known manufacturer of heart defibrillators and pacemakers has engineered an impressive rise at a major Las Vegas hospital by aggressively courting cardiologists there with consulting deals, spurring a federal investigation into the company’s marketing practices.
As The New York Times reports, Biotronik holds just 5 percent of the national market for heart devices and, before 2008, its defibrillators and pacemakers weren’t used at University Medical Center of Southern Nevada. Last year, however, 250 of the 263 heart devices installed at the Las Vegas hospital came from Biotronik.
The rise in popularity of Biotronik products coincides with the device manufacturer hiring a number of cardiologists at University Medical Center as consultants, paying as much as $5,000 a month. During the dramatic shift toward Biotronik devices, hospital officials never inquired about the financial relationships between its heart experts and the company.
According to documents, emails and interviews, the company had an elaborate system in place to identify the doctors who would be receptive to company advances and those who would not, who were dubbed “losers.”
A former company employee told the Times that he was fired for bringing to light questionable practices, such as the payments to doctors.
The Justice Department is investigating Biotronik, although neither the agency nor the company would comment on the specifics of the probe. “Biotronik is committed to maintaining a culture of compliance and ethics and has a robust and active internal compliance program,” said Christopher A. Myers, a company spokesman.
The market for heart devices is dominated by three companies –Medtronic, Boston Scientific and St. Jude Medical– and has been marred by improper conduct in the past. Earlier this year, St. Jude paid a $16 million settlement in a federal case alleging that it made payments to doctors to participate in medical trials set up by the company.
As the Times pointed out, payments to doctors from makers of drugs and medical devices have come under intense scrutiny in recent years because of the concern that they are improperly influencing doctors’ medical decisions. Under the federal health care reform passed last year, companies such as Biotronik will have to disclose by 2013 payments made to doctors for consulting and other services.
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