Guidant Corporation
ORG
Guidant Corporation Guidant
A consultant to the Guidant Corporation told the company that he believed it had a clear ethical obligation to tell physicians about heart device defects, and urged the company to overhaul its practices, newly released court records show. In two lengthy memos written just before Guidant was swamped by controversy, the consultant, Dr. Richard N. Fogoros, also told company executives that their decision to withhold such data, while statistically defensible, was questionable. Guidant executives have said they did not publicize defibrillator flaws because they believed that patients faced greater risks from replacement surgery than from the units.