Taser shares rise on news of safety study

January 14, 2005
LOUIS UCHITELLE, The New York Times

The news release issued by Taser quoted directly from the study but did not list the four authors, two of whom are Taser executives ... While the company's news release made no mention of the study's four authors, Taser posted the full four-page study on its Web site. The study noted that two of the four authors were Robert A. Stratbucker and Max Nerheim, who were identified as Taser employees. Mr. Stratbucker is the medical director and Mr. Nerheim is the vice president for engineering, the company said.

Asked whether the company had played any role in the conduct of the study, a Taser spokesman, Steve Tuttle, replied in an e-mail message: "Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology (PACE) is the foremost peer-reviewed journal in the field of pacing and implantable cardioversion defibrillation. The published results of the cardiac safety study of Taser technology speaks for itself."

The release also said that the study was published in a prestigious peer-reviewed journal, Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology. But the study is scheduled to appear instead in a supplement to the journal, not the journal itself.