Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, believes federal law should protect device companies from lawsuits filed by patients injured by their devices, reports StarTribune.
Here are four things to know.
1. In 2015, Mr. Gorsuch served as an appeals court judge in the U.S. 10th Circuit. He wrote an opinion denying a woman the right to sue Medtronic for injuries she claimed stemmed from the devicemaker's inappropriate off-label promotion of its Infuse bone graft, reports StarTribune. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on appeal.
2. Mr. Gorsuch believed federal law prevented plaintiffs from using state law to try to impose new requirements on a federally-approved medical device, according to the report.
3. Experts say the decision will deny many individuals injured by medical devices to sue devicemakers in state courts, even if the products were used in ways the Food and Drug Administration did not approve, according to the report.
4. Mr. Gorsuch's decision means device companies can earn FDA approval for an easily documented, yet limited use of a device, while holding "virtual immunity" for all untested and potentially harmful off-label uses of the device, according to John Dornik, an attorney at Siegel Brill and professor of product liability at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
"Once they get FDA approval, they get to escape any lawsuit for anything that states like Minnesota would hold them accountable for," Mr. Dornik told StarTribune.
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