Boston Scientific Paying $296 Million To Settle Investigation Into Guidant Unit (BSX)

11/6/2009 - Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) said Friday that it will pay $296 million to settle a Department of Justice investigation into the company's Guidant unit, according to an AP report. The company also said it will take a charge of $294 million in Q3. The investigation involved product advisories issued by Guidant in 2005, which was a year before Boston Scientific paid $27 billion for the heart device maker. The claims were that Guidant knowingly sold defibrillators with potentially life-threatening defects over a three-year period and the company was also criticized for taking too long to notify doctors, patients and regulators about potential problems. Guidant will plead to two misdemeanor charges related to failure to include information in reports to the FDA.

Write to Chip Brian at cbrian@tradethetrend.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SmarTrend analyzes over 5,000 securities simultaneously throughout the trading day and provides its subscribers with trend change alerts in real time. To get a free trial of our trading calls and maximize your trading results, please visit http://www.TradeTheTrend.com.

Get exclusive, actionable insight into how the market is expected to trend prior to market open with our free morning newsletter. Sign up at: http://www.TradeTheTrend.com/signup.html

Related terms: doctors, investigation, market, nyse, securities