Utah Medical Products Inc. will have to wait until May 2005 to address allegations by the government that the company's manufacturing process should be shut down.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Bruce S. Jenkins set a May 16 pretrial conference to address a request by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a permanent injunction against the company. A trial could be held as early as June 2005.
Kevin Cornwell, Utah Medical's chief executive, said the FDA's handling of the case has hurt business.
"I was pleased that the judge did give us a quicker than normal turnaround time for document discovery, which is helpful," Cornwell said. "I have to be pleased with a pretrial conference in May. It's not as fast as we asked, but what we asked for was probably not very realistic, either."
In August, the FDA filed a request for a permanent injunction against the company from manufacturing and distributing medical devices.
In February and March, the FDA conducted an inspection of the Midvale-based company. The FDA charged that the methods and controls Utah Medical used in the manufacturing, packing and storage of medical devices were "not in compliance with good manufacturing practice."
"Defendants have received numerous warnings about their violative conduct," the government said in court documents. "Despite defendants' claims that UMP is in compliance . . . FDA investigators observed that violations persisted at the 2004 inspection."
Judge Jenkins said the pretrial conference would isolate what is at issue and examine "whether there is anything left to try."
Cornwell said he cannot understand why the FDA is asking the court to shut the company down but is willing to wait a year to do it.
"They are prejudicing the marketplace by making public statements that can't be supported," Cornwell said. "I don't understand why an agency who is empowered to protect the public health is behaving this way. We asked for mediation earlier this year, and they refused it."
At the close of trading Tuesday, shares of Utah Medical were down 27 cents at $18.01 on Nasdaq. In the past year, the price has ranged from $16.02 to $27.19.
E-mail: danderton@desnews.com