Click to change text size
VNS Litigation Attorneys
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
WEB NEWS RELEASE
(December 11, 2006) PENNSYLVANIA – Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis LLP, a leading law firm specializing, among other things, in serious personal injury, toxic tort and complex multi-plaintiff litigation, have filed a National Class Action lawsuit in Federal Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Cyberonics, Inc. The lawsuit concerns the marketing and sale of Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) for Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD).
The Complaint alleges that the "Class Plaintiff is a member of a class, who underwent VNS Therapy, which involved the surgical insertion of said system in order to alleviate and manage her treatment-resistant clinical depression. Said VNS Therapy was... incapable of accomplishing the represented goals for which it was marketed and upon which Class Plaintiff relied. This costly, risky and virtually irreversibly implanted product has nothing more than a placebo effect at best, and is totally inoperative at worst."
The VNS device sold by Cyberonics involves an average cost of $15,000 to purchase, with additional costs to surgically implant the device that can run into thousands of dollars. Further it must be replaced every five years when the battery runs low. There is simply no credible evidence to support the marketing, promotion and sale of VNS Therapy for TRD and its marketing with claims of projected success are false, misleading and harmful.
While the device has been approved by the FDA, a United States Senate Finance Committee concluded that when the FDA approved VNS for TRD, it overruled more than twenty FDA officials who had reviewed the data and recommended against approval. On September 6, 2006 Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group with 98,000 members, petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to reverse approval of the vagus nerve stimulation device for the management of treatment-resistant depression because the device has not demonstrated a "reasonable assurance that the device is safe and effective." Public Citizen accuses Cyberonics of perpetrating a "cruel hoax" on patients with TRD. These are people who are at their last resort in seeking a cure for overwhelming depression.
The Class Plaintiff, who is over $50,000 in debt for what amounts to expensive snake oil, seeks compensatory and punitive damages from the Cyberonics which continues to promote the device on the WebMD web site. Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis LLP is in the process of adding a Vagus Nerve Stimulation Class Action web page to www.ppl-law.com to provide information about the suit and to allow contact by TRD patients who have been harmed.
Contact the injury lawyers in Philadelphia at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis today to put over 100 years of combined experience on your side.
Call or email us today for your personal consultation.
