Ms.
Riordan Manufacturing Bio:
Riordan Manufacturing (Riordan) is an international plastics manufacturer. Riordan was founded by Dr. Michael Riordan, a professor of chemistry, in 1992. Riordan's Headquarters is in San Jose, California. The company currently has two domestic manufacturing plants, one in Albany, Georgia, and one in Pontiac, Michigan. In the spring of 2000 Riordan opened its first international manufacturing plant in Hangzhou, China. Riordan employs 550 people across the globe with projected earnings of $46 million dollars.
Riordan's diverse product line includes the manufacturing of plastic bottles, fans, heart valves, medical stents, and custom plastic parts. Riordan's existing clients are automotive parts manufacturers, aircraft manufacturers, the Department of Defense, beverage makers and bottlers, and medical distributors.
Cause For Litigation:
An international bioethics related legal issue has arisen out of Riordan's recent development of a genetically engineered heart valve. This heart valve is a revolutionary hybrid design consisting of a newly developed substrate called bio-plastics. Bio-plastics are created using human stem cells that are infused with a plastics-based gel that provides a semi-rigid structural framework which supports the living tissue.
This newly patented process of creating bio-plastic heart valves has yet to receive the required Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) clearance in the United States. Riordan has a long history of being an aggressive company who takes calculated risks to bring new products to market. These two factors have contributed to Riordan's decision to release this new product in China, which does not require the rigorous testing and scrutiny of the FDA.
Everything seemed to be going well until Jimmy Dupont, a Riordan Geneticist, was summarily fired after the company's internal security chief compiled a comprehensive dossier which Riordan claims is...
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