St. Jude Quits AdvaMed, Citing Dispute Over Tax Proposal

St. Jude Medical has severed ties with AdvaMed following the trade association’s support for a $2 billion annual device tax in the House healthcare bill — half as much as the tax included in a Senate Finance Committee bill. St. Jude took issue with AdvaMed’s recently announced lobbying agenda, which recommends that the tax rate be tiered by device class. “We feel it is inappropriate for AdvaMed to advocate for a specific policy that economically advantages a portion of its membership at the expense of other members,” Daniel Starks, St. Jude CEO, says in a letter to AdvaMed President Stephen Ubl.
Devices & Diagnostics Letter