St. Jude Medical Inc. (St. Jude) has agreed to pay $27 million to settle allegations under the False Claims Act that, between November 2014 and October 2016, it knowingly sold defective heart devices to healthcare facilities that, in turn, implanted the devices into patients insured by federal healthcare programs. St. Jude was acquired by Abbott Laboratories in January 2017. The government alleges that St. Jude failed to disclose serious adverse health events in connection with the premature depletion of the battery in certain models of its Fortify, Fortify Assura, Quadra and Unify devices, which are implantable defibrillators used in patients at risk of cardiac arrest due to an irregular heartbeat.
