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Editor: Marc Jay Bern
Profession: Defective Medical Device Lawyer

Category: Medtronic News

Medtronic and animal rights group PETA have reached an agreement ensuring the medical device maker will take steps to improve the lives of those animals used in medical experiments.

Additionally, Medtronic has promised to extend animal welfare protections if animals are used in foreign contract laboratories.

PETA, in return, withdrew a shareholder resolution calling on Medtronic to stop outsourcing animal experiments to China and various other countries with inadequate animal-protection laws.

"Typically what we do in these situations is formally address shareholders at companies' annual meetings and protest outside," said Holly Beal, a spokeswoman for Norfolk, Va.-based PETA.

However, Beal said Medtronic was willing to meet with the group twice yearly to discuss animal welfare issues and address the issue of foreign laboratories that test medical devices.

Many medical technology companies test experiment medical devices on animals prior to using them on humans in clinical trials.