A Medical Device Daily

A lawsuit filed Jan. 6 in Sacramento Superior Court by the Service Employees International Union seeks to delay the Sutter Medical Center (Sacramento, California) community redevelopment project, approved last month on a 9-0 vote by the Sacramento City Council, and unanimous votes by the city's planning groups.

The project includes renovation of Sutter General Hospital and Sutter Cancer Center, construction of a new Anderson Lucchetti Women's and Children's Center, new medical office buildings, 32 new homes, a live production theatre complex for B Street Theatre and Children's Theatre of California, a new Trinity Cathedral, a community parking garage and neighborhood-serving retail and restaurants.

"While we have not yet seen the lawsuit, it clearly is not motivated by a concern for the community," said Tom Gagen, CEO of Sutter Medical Center Sacramento. "This broadly supported and thoroughly studied project will enable us to dramatically improve the quality of healthcare for Sacramento and the surrounding region, and provides a huge economic boost to the city. It would be very unfortunate for patients and our residents if this project is delayed."

Every month of delay for the project could add $3.5 million to the project's budget, currently projected at $456 million for the medical facilities, the company said.

In other legalities: A class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey on behalf of all securities purchasers of SFBC International (Miami), a provider of early- and late-stage drug development services to branded medical device, pharmaceutical, biotech and generic drug companies worldwide.

The class period is from Aug. 4, 2003, to Dec. 15, 2005.

The complaint, filed by Schiffrin & Barroway, alleges that SFBC failed to disclose and misrepresented material adverse facts known to defendants or "recklessly disregarded" by them.

Since Nov. 1, 2005, the day before Bloomberg News reported that bioethicists said the company's consent process inadequately warned drug trial participants of the risks of injury and death, through Dec. 16, 2005, SFBC stock fell from $41.49 a share to $13.14 a share, a drop of 68.3%.