Medtronic Calls Link To Faulty St. Jude's Batteries Misleading, 'Uses Different Battery, With A Different Battery Design'

Amid a broad market selloff, Medtronic PLC MDT was under heavy selling pressure on Tuesday.

St. Jude Medical, Inc. STJ said Tuesday morning it would recall some of its implanted heart devices due to risk of premature battery depletion. St. Jude said 841 devices had been returned to the company for analysis due to premature battery depletion, traced to a build-up of lithium clusters in the batteries.

Related Link: St. Jude Investors Show Concern Amid Battery Issue; Abbott Reassures Deal Will Close

There was also a Bloomberg report that said Medtronic has had reports of lithium clusters similar to St. Jude Medical. In an email to Benzinga, Medtronic said these reports were "misleading."

"[Medtronic] uses a different battery, with a different battery design," a spokesperson told Benzinga. "Also, we manufacture our own batteries."

Shares of Medtronic traded recently at $82.97, down about 3.7 percent on the day, although it began to tick higher shortly after Benzinga Pro first reported this latest news.