Wolf Popper Announces Filing of Securities Class Action Lawsuit Against Medtronic ...( NEW YORK Nov. 8 /- Wolf Popper LL...),Health

NEW YORK, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Wolf Popper LLP has filed a class action lawsuit against Medtronic, Inc. ("Medtronic") (NYSE: MDT) and certain of its officers and directors in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, on behalf of investors who purchased Medtronic common stock on the open market from June 25, 2007 through October 15, 2007 (the "Class Period"). This is the first action filed against Medtronic and alleges claims for securities fraud. The case has been assigned Civil Action No. 07-4564 (DSD/JJG).

The complaint charges that during the Class Period Medtronic misrepresented the true facts concerning the Sprint Fidelis defibrillation leads, and that those true facts were only disseminated to investors on October 15, 2007 when the Company disclosed that it would voluntarily suspend distribution of these defibrillator leads. The Sprint Fidelis defibrillation leads were introduced to the market in September 2004 and, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal on October 30, 2007, by early 2007 "about 90% of new Medtronic defibrillators used Fidelis leads."

By January 2007 Medtronic had received 679 reports of injuries caused by fractures in the Sprint Fidelis defibrillation leads. In a meeting with Dr. Robert G. Hauser, of the Minneapolis Heart Institute in February 2007, Medtronic was informed specifically that the Minneapolis Heart Institute would cease using the Fidelis leads in operations and would use Medtronic's earlier generation Sprint Quattro leads. The reports of lead failures led Medtronic to send a letter dated March 21, 2007 to physicians treating patients with the Sprint Fidelis leads describing the nature of the lead failures and attributing the failures
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