Ninth Circuit Deepens Circuit Split on Medical Device Preemption

On January 10, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an unanimous en banc decision in Stengel v. Medtronic Inc. Holding that the Medical Device Amendments to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act do not preempt state-law claims that parallel federal-law duties, the Ninth Circuit became the latest federal appellate court to define the contours of medical device preemption. The court solidified a split among circuits regarding the scope of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Buckman Co. v. Plaintiffs' Legal Committee, which held that the MDA impliedly preempted state-law claims alleging misrepresentations to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.