
Qmed’s 10 Whistleblower Lawsuits that Rocked Medtech: National Whistleblower Appreciation Day
July 26, 2015
Later this week, July 30, is National Whistleblower Appreciation Day and while much is written about Big Pharma whistleblower lawsuits and the billion dollar fines imposed by United States Department of Justice (DOJ), in comparison little is written or really understood when it comes to fraud and medtech or medical device industry. Qmed put together a list of 10 Whistleblower Lawsuits that Rocked Medtech. As the DOJ continues to learn the differences between the two sales models which include startups that sale to large established conglomerates we’ll see more medtech (and later just tech) fraud come to light. Silicon Valley will transition from startup gods to gods of frauds and none will be happier than the lawyers.

Network 1976
The other reason we’ll see more medtech whistleblower cases in the near future is the amount of pervasive employee abuse at the hands of founders & executives who do not think the laws applies to them.

Network 1976
Employees are pathologically manipulated without shame, remorse, guilt or accountability from founders, executives and managers at the startup level to accelerate the company’s goal via a hypergrowth sales model which falsely demonstrates worth skewing valuations, selling to a large conglomerate where this same unethical and illegal behavior is encouraged, replicated and rewarded.

Network 1976
One only need to look at my former employer startup Acclarent which was purchased by Johnson & Johnson in 2010 for $785 million to see a pattern that’s becoming all too obvious to the DOJ. Former CEO William (Bill) Facteau & VP of Sales and Marketing Patrick (Pat) Fabian, arrested, indicted on 18 counts of fraud, and currently awaitng trail. Startup OtisMed was purchased by Styrker and DePuy Synthes was purchased by Johnson & Johnson all demonstrate startups, fraud, purchsed, continued fraud and executives jailed.
We won’t see the billion dollar fines (which grabs the media’s attention) like we do with pharma but we will see more executives jailed from medtech/device (which better start grabbing the media’s attention). Head over to Qmed for 10 Whistleblower Lawsuits that Rocked Medtech to celebrate National Whistleblower Appreciation Day; and if the list is any indication it looks like more than a few Johnson & Johnson executives should be more than a little nervous about this trend because it’s entrenched in their business model.
It’s important to remember that pharma and med device or tech are completely different from one another it’s like comparing: Apples to Oranges