There’s no quit in Abbott whistleblower Colquitt

The whistleblower behind a decade-old lawsuit against Abbott (NYSE:ABT) won’t say die, asking a federal appeals court last week to order a new trial after a jury shot him down earlier this year.

Former Guidant sales rep Kevin Colquitt sued Abbott, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) in 2006 for $219.4 million, claiming that they marketed the use of biliary stents to treat peripheral artery disease. (The magistrate overseeing the lawsuit, Judge Barbara Lynn of the U.S. District Court for Northern Texas, later let J&J and Boston Scientific off the hook.)

Abbott acquired Guidant’s stents business in 2006 as part of Guidant’s acquisition by Boston Scientific.

Colquitt’s qui tam lawsuit alleged that Abbott defrauded Medicare when it filed claims covering the use of biliary stents in peripheral interventions.

But in April jurors agreed with Abbott’s attorneys, who argued that use of the biliary stents for other conditions was an accepted medical practice and that Medicare knowingly approved reimbursement.

Colquitt appealed Oct. 21 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, arguing that Judge Barbara Lynn (who denied Colquitt’s bid for a new trial in May) made a series of errors including improperly excluding evidence.

“The district court’s errors at the dismissal stage begat errors at the summary judgment stage, which begat errors at trial. The record does not support the district court’s holding that, as a matter of law, Colquitt’s allegations of fraudulent inducement and false presentment had been publicly disclosed. The scant information disclosed publicly does not cover all the claim’s elements and does not even approach the scope of Colquitt’s allegations. The jurisdictional inquiry was satisfied at the outset, and the district court never should have required Colquitt to establish he was an original source as to the information (although he did so),” according to the Federal Circuit appeal filed last week.

In January 2014, Abbott paid nearly $5.5 million, but admitted no wrongdoing, to settle a class-action lawsuit that made similar allegations.

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