Court deals blow to mysteriously named whistleblower, blowing off precedent

In September, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California dismissed a qui tam complaint filed against Medtronic and its subsidiaries alleging violations of the False Claims Act.

The relator (an LLC named “The Dan Abrams Company LLC” formed by a former Medtronic employee named Bryan Shapiro) alleged, inter alia, that Medtronic obtained marketing approval for some of its spinal implant products by deceiving the FDA as
to the intended use of these products, and that Medtronic promoted these products for an off-label use.

As a result, the relator alleged Medtronic caused the submission of false claims to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services under an implied false certification theory. The government declined to intervene.