Medtronic Bribed A Surgeon $800.000 For Falsifying Study
NewsToBeRead
2009
Medtronic Paid the Surgeon Accused Of Falsifying Study Nearly $800,000
By DAVID ARMSTRONG and THOMAS M. BURTON
Medical device maker Medtronic Inc. says it paid nearly $800,000 over the
past three years to a former Army surgeon accused of fabricating a study
that reported positive results for one of the company's key spine products.
Some of the consulting payments occurred during the time that the surgeon,
Timothy R. Kuklo, was shopping his favorable study of Medtronic's Infuse
bone-graft product to medical journals. The paper, ultimately published last
August in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, reported advantages in
healing the legs of injured soldiers when Infuse was used.
The Army has said that the study is based on "falsified information" and
that Dr. Kuklo forged the signatures of purported co-authors. Dr. Kuklo
listed his affiliation with Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the journal.
He left the Army hospital in August 2006 and joined the faculty of
Washington University in St. Louis.
Medtronic disclosed the payments to The Wall Street Journal Wednesday. It
says the payments were compensation for Dr. Kuklo's work developing products
for the company, training doctors and speaking at company events and that
they weren't connected to the study or journal article in any way.
Bone and Joint Surgery withdrew the paper after the Army contacted it about
the fraud allegations. Dr. Kuklo, who has taken a leave from the university,
hasn't commented publicly on the matter and didn't return a message left at
his home Wednesday. The university declined to say whether it was
investigating Dr. Kuklo.
In 2007, Dr. Kuklo offered the study to at least two medical journals,
according to the publications. Medtronic says it paid him $356,242 that year
for consulting, speaking, travel and training services. In 2008, the year
the study was published, Medtronic says it paid Dr. Kuklo $249,772.
Medtronic has said that consulting arrangements with surgeons are critical
to the development of new products. Its payments to surgeons who use its
spine products are under investigation by the Justice Department following
accusations by several former employees that the doctors were being induced
to use the products -- allegations the company denies.
Medtronic last year provided Congress with a list of 22 consultants who
worked specifically on Infuse-related matters. The payments to those doctors
ranged from $100 a year to $67,600.
Surgeons with more general consulting arrangements, such as Dr. Kuklo, can
earn more. Jeffrey Wang, chief of spine surgery at the University of
California, Los Angeles, reported receiving $186,700 in product development,
royalty and teaching payments from Medtronic from 2004 through 2007.
Medtronic placed its consulting relationship with Dr. Kuklo on "inactive
status" in May, when the Army disclosed it had found problems with the
study. In the first few months of 2009, it paid him $132,453.
Medtronic also says it paid Dr. Kuklo smaller amounts, including $42,627 in
2006, and picked up his expenses while he worked for the Army. The latter
payments, which total $42,295 from 2001 through 2005, were primarily tied to
travel to medical conferences and speeches at Medtronic events. Some went
directly to third parties, such as hotels and airlines, the company said.
The Army declined to comment, including answering whether such payments were
legal.
Write to David Armstrong at david.a...@wsj.com and Thomas M. Burton at
tom.b...@wsj.com
StraightDrive
"NewsToBeRead" <NewsTo...@USA.Com> wrote in message
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Medtronic is a third world country company run by thirid world country
people which is why it is CORRUPT.
There is NO CORRUPTION in First World Countries ESPECIALLY USA.