As widely reported in the media, only days after the start of what was expected to be a lengthy jury trial, federal prosecutors dropped felony conspiracy and fraud charges against two salesmen from Stryker Biotech yesterday in a trial in the US District Court in Boston. A Nutter defense team led by Robert L. Ullmann, chair of the Government Enforcement and White Collar Defense practice represented one of the defendants, the former sales director of the company. Stryker Biotech and several individuals had been accused of defrauding surgeons by marketing devices to stimulate bone growth in a way that was not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
All of the charges against Nutter’s client and the other salesman were dropped following opening statements and a series of successful motions and other developments. Bob Ullmann was quoted in the coverage of the trial, “US dismisses drug salesmen’s case,” in the Boston Globe stating “These were fraud charges that never should have been brought.’’ The Globe pointed out that in this and an earlier case “prosecutors agreed to drop charges after testimony began… which legal analysts called extraordinary occurrences at the federal court level.”