Discovery Order Upheld in Abbott Labs Medical Device Kickback Case

SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge has upheld a discovery order in a lawsuit accusing Abbot Laboratories of violating the False Claims Act and several state law equivalents by paying kickbacks to physicians in exchange for implanting and/or referring patients to its MitraClip heart device, which is used to treat mitral regurgitation.

In a Jan. 26 order, Judge Thomas J. Whelan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California ruled that the geographic scope of discovery should be nationwide, and that the proper temporal scope of discovery is Aug. 1, 2015, through Feb. 14, 2020. …