3M Scores Major Legal Victory in Bair Hugger Litigation
01 Août 2019 - 4:18PM
Business Wire
Federal court dismisses thousands of lawsuits
in multidistrict litigation against patient warming system
3M announced today that a federal court has dismissed all of the
federal lawsuits against the 3M™ Bair Hugger™ system. The legal
victory comes after six years of defending the integrity of the
company's patient warming system.
The decision dismisses more than 5,000 lawsuits filed by
plaintiffs’ attorneys, who improperly claimed that the warming
system was responsible for infections suffered by patients during
surgery. Those lawsuits were consolidated in a multidistrict
litigation in federal court in Minnesota.
The federal decision in favor of 3M comes six months after the
Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a Minnesota state court order
dismissing 61 similar cases filed by lawyers on behalf of Minnesota
plaintiffs.
“There is no legitimate scientific support for the plaintiffs’
theory. We are pleased that the court has dismissed all of the
cases in the multidistrict litigation,” said Dr. Todd
Fruchterman, general manager, 3M Medical Solutions Business. “Most
importantly, we want physicians and patients to understand that the
practice of patient warming is supported by leading health care
institutions, professional societies and the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration. Our industry-leading 3M Bair Hugger system has been
proven to be a safe, effective and efficient method of delivering
patient warming therapy.”
In its order, the federal court granted 3M’s request to exclude
the plaintiffs’ general causation experts, leaving the plaintiffs
with no scientific support for their claims. The court previously
had agreed to allow the plaintiffs’ experts to testify in court.
After those experts testified in the first Bair Hugger system trial
in 2018 and after the publication of a new study on surgical site
infections, 3M asked the court to revisit its earlier decision.
3M argued that the new evidence further proved that the
plaintiffs’ experts lacked scientific support for their claims. On
July 31, 2019, the court granted 3M’s motion.
The company says the plaintiffs’ infection theory was invented
by 3M competitor Augustine Temperature Management and its founder
Scott Augustine―who has waged a decade-long campaign to malign the
Bair Hugger system as part of an effort to market his own competing
product.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers have spent millions of dollars on
advertising to solicit patients who contracted infections during
surgery.
This court decision does not dismiss two similar cases filed in
state courts in Missouri and Texas.
In August 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent a
letter to health care providers stating that it continues to
recommend the use of patient warming devices, including forced-air
warming devices, for surgical procedures when clinically
warranted.
The 3M Bair Hugger system, which is used to warm patients
before, during and after surgery, has been safely used more than
300 million times in the past 30 years. It continues to be used
thousands of times each day in medical facilities worldwide.
About 3M At 3M, we apply science in collaborative ways to
improve lives daily. With $33 billion in sales, our 93,000
employees connect with customers all around the world. Learn more
about 3M’s creative solutions to the world’s problems at www.3M.com
or on Twitter @3M or @3MNews.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190801005546/en/
3M Media Contact Fanna Haile-Selassie 651-736-0876
Fhaile-selassie@mmm.com
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