The COVID-19 pandemic is creating a new set of medical device litigation challenges — but also a chance for an industry reset. One of Greenberg Traurig’s top medtech litigation lawyers shares her insights.

medical device litigation medtech COVID-19 coronavirus

[Gavel image from Unsplash. Coronavirus image from WHO]

Sara Thompson doesn’t take any guff when she tells people that she defends medical device and pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits.

“I say, ‘I sleep great at night because the companies I represent make things that can save and sustain life,’” said Thompson, who is vice chair of the Pharmaceutical, Medical Device & Health Care Litigation Practice at Greenberg Traurig.

Thompson thinks the case in defense of medtech is even stronger now that Americans and people around the world desperately need medical devices, drugs and vaccines to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Both drug and device companies want to help. A lot of our clients are developing ventilators, or they’re making their ventilators open-source. They’re contributing parts, and they’re contributing manufacturing space,” Thompson recently told our sister site Medical Design & Outsourcing.

Thompson summed it up: “I think it’s changing public perceptions in a way that once we get to trials will also be interesting. There’s going to be a lot of reverberations of this for a long time, I would say.”

Most commentators agree that COVID-19 is creating a new normal, and medtech litigation is no exception. Improved public perception is but one of a number of changes taking place.

Go to MDO and read about five other ways Thompson sees the space evolving.