Merit Medical Systems Archives - Page 3 of 3

Merit Medical must face shareholder lawsuit

A federal judge in California quashed a bid by Merit Medical to dismiss a lawsuit alleging misrepresentation of success to stockholders.

The consolidated class action complaint states two claims for securities fraud, alleging that Merit CEO Fred P. Lampropoulos and CFO Raul Parra, plus the company itself, made multiple misrepresentations to investors that resulted in substantial losses to members of the class, according to court documents.

The stockholders claim Merit made false statements regarding its acquisitions of Cianna (a $200 million deal in October 2018) and Vascular Insights (a $60 million deal two months later). Those statements were allegedly made during investor calls and in press releases, along with SEC forms and letters to investors in February, March, April and July of 2019.

Plaintiffs claimed that Merit misrepresented the success of the transition and integration with Cianna, including product sales numbers and the status of Cianna̵…

Merit Medical ticks up on Street-beating Q4 results

Merit Medical (NSDQ:MMSI) posted fourth-quarter results that beat the consensus forecast on Wall Street.

The South Jordan, Utah-based company reported profits of $15.4 million, or 27¢ per share, on sales of $258 million for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2020, for a sales growth of 0.03% compared with Q4 2019.

Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were 54¢, 11¢ ahead of The Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $250.5 million.

“We delivered fourth-quarter revenue results above the high-end of our guidance range, increasing 6% quarter-over-quarter as reported, despite the challenging operating environment and a slower-than-expected pace of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in many of our primary markets around the world,” president and CEO Fred Lampropoulos said in a news release.

“Our financial guidance for 2021 reflects cautious optimism on the prospects for an improving operating environment as we progress through …

MedTech 100 roundup: Another rebound as markets continue to fluctuate

Medtech stocks rebounded from a significant dip earlier in June last week, continuing to highlight the topsy-turvy nature of the markets during the COVID-19 pandemic.

MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — sat at 85.00 points at the end of last week (June 19). That total represents a 3.5% increase from the 82.12-point total at the same time a week prior (June 12), demonstrating another uptick after a -6% drop-off just one week before.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Index experienced a 1.9% increase from June 12 to June 19, and the Dow Jones Index fared slightly worse with a 1% increase over the same period of time. Both indexes mirrored medtech’s rebound, having posted -4.8% and -5.6% decreases, respectively, the week before.

Medtech’s lowest point during the COVID-19 pandemic remains at 62.13 on March 23. Since then, the industry’s stocks have experienced 36.8% growth in total. Stocks i…

Former Merit Medical executive claims physician kickbacks in whistleblower lawsuit

The U.S. has joined in a whistleblower lawsuit filed by the former chief compliance officer of Merit Medical (NSDQ:MMSI), who claims the company ran a fraud scheme involving physician kickbacks.

Dr. Charles Wolf alleges the Salt Lake City-based medical device company engaged in unlawful kickbacks to induce physicians to use more of its Embosphere and QuadraSphere microspheres for embolization and occlusion — as well as off-label uses. The practice ran up expenditures for Medicare, Medicaid and other public healthcare payers.

Merit, according to Wolf, provided paid advertising for loyal users and paid consulting fees in order to influence physicians to use its devices. The company disguised the money as educational in nature, and payments were meant to affect and induce hospitals and physicians to purchase additional equipment, supplies and/or products from Merit, according to Wolf’s complaint, handled by attorneys at Joseph, Greenwald & Laake.

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Merit Medical lands CE mark for Wrapsody endovascular stent graft

Merit Medical (NSDQ:MMSI) announced that it received CE Mark approval in Europe for its Wrapsody endovascular stent graft system.

Wrapsody is a flexible, self-expanding endoprosthesis indicated for use in hemodialysis patients for treating stenosis or occlusion within central veins, along with the dialysis outflow circuit of an arteriovenous (AV) fistula or AV graft, according to a news release.

In the U.S., Wrapsody won an FDA breakthrough nod in November 2019 for hemodialysis treatment, then added indications for stenosis or occlusion within the dialysis outflow circuit just last month. The company also recently completed enrollment and primary follow-up for its Wrapsody First study, which includes 46 patients in Europe.

Merit said in the release that it plans to offer additional products that utilize the Wrapsody platform, subject to additional regulatory submissions. It also plans to submit a pre-market approval application to the FDA once it conclud…