Implant FIles : How Medical Devices Manufacturers Are Thriving While Harming Patients WIth Easy Approvals.

For the past decade, European lawmakers have been at the center of a lobbying storm by lobbyists from Medical Device Makers. Medical devices are a lucrative market and they want to continue selling these unabated. As a result, patients around the world have become unwitting test subjects for new medical technology. Often following the trusted advice of their doctors, they have been injured, maimed and killed by poorly-tested implants.

European Union's efforts to overhaul safety regulations for the millions of medical implants embedded in patients each year, have been halted by a group of very powerful lobbyists, twice within the last ten years. These implants include, artificial hips, breast implants, stents, defibrillators, pacemakers, and more.

A year-long investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 58 partner news organizations in 36 countries, known as the Implant Files, has discovered how top European Union politicians and officials were won over by misleading claims from implant industry lobby groups.
Key findings include;

Speedy approvals, light touch regulation and industry-friendly personal injury law make Europe a draw for device manufacturers
Approval in Europe opens up markets in countries around the world
U.S. is being pushed to speed up approvals to compete with Europe

These claims played a pivotal role in shaping the course of EU policy and killing off any prospect of a fundamental strengthening of medical device regulation, first in the European Commission and later in the European Parliament.
Read the full report over at ICIJ.