PUBLIC CITIZEN FILES MOTION ASKING COURT TO UNSEAL GUIDANT CASE DOCUMENTS

The briefs and evidence kept secret in a case involving heart devicemaker Guidant must be unsealed, Public Citizen said in a motion filed Aug. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

The group wants judicial records from the closed court case Cardiac Pacemakers v. Aspen II Holding Co. made public. In the case two subsidiaries of Guidant sued Aspen, a healthcare consulting firm, for publishing price information about Guidant devices.

"The briefs supporting and opposing summary judgment, and all supporting papers, were filed under seal without any documentation of need for secrecy. Consequently, information highly important to the public interest will remain secret unless the seal is lifted," Public Citizen said in a statement.

Guidant charged Aspen with interfering with its contracts and stealing trade secrets, "even though the consulting company is a third party that did not agree to be bound by the confidentiality clauses in Guidant's business contracts," the group added.

The court ruled against Aspen for contract interference, and the remainder of the case was settled before trial.

In May, medical products testing organization ECRI sued Guidant in a Pennsylvania federal court over the company's attempts to force it to quit publishing price information about its products.

"Pricing confidentiality has long been standard practice in the CRM industry," Paul Donovan, senior vice president for corporate communications at Boston Scientific, which acquired Guidant in April, said at the time.

The Public Citizen announcement can be viewed at www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2252 (http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2252).