Warning over Medical Device Safety Act

The American Tort Reform Association has issued a warning over plans to reintroduce the Medical Device Safety Act. According to ATRA president Tiger Joyce, Sen Edward Kennedy and others are expected to formally reintroduce the bill shortly, in “their effort to undo the Supreme Court’s near-unanimous Riegel v Medtronic decision last year, which reaffirmed longstanding law that pre-empts state civil claims challenging the design and safety of certain medical devices already approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration”.