EXHIBIT 99.1

Salt Lake City, Utah - Utah Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:UTMD) is responding
to a Press Release issued today and comments made by Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) employees which UTMD believes are deliberately misleading
to the reader.

         The complaint which the FDA filed and publicized has not been served on
UTMD. However, UTMD understands that the content of this complaint is standard
and that the FDA has the burden to prove its allegations. An answer to the
complaint will be filed, but UTMD believes in the judicial process and welcomes
the opportunity to seek the discovery it has been denied for over three years.

         Neither the complaint nor any direct FDA communications to UTMD has
identified or suggested any issue relating to the safety or effectiveness of
UTMD devices. This fact coupled with ISO 13485 Certification are continuing
verification of the superiority of UTMD quality systems. Users of UTMD devices
can take comfort in the quality and performance of its devices.

         UTMD Chairman and CEO Kevin Cornwell, after reviewing statements made
by FDA employees, had this to say:
                  "It is unfortunate that FDA would publicize comments that
                  border on hearsay and attribute them to Acting Commissioner
                  Lester M. Crawford and Larry Spears. I spoke personally on
                  two very recent occasions with Les Crawford and he never
                  expressed any concern about the performance of any of our
                  devices. The statements attributed to him are not supported
                  by fact and I confirm that users can continue to expect that
                  our devices are safe and effective. The employees that
                  provided the information underlying the statements do not
                  and, to our knowledge, never have had the responsibility to
                  manufacture any medical device.

                  While disappointed in the comments attributed to Crawford, I
                  am very troubled by the hearsay comments attributed to Larry
                  Spears. The FDA makes allegations of violations/deviations in
                  the hundreds of Warning Letters it issues annually. Yet, it is
                  rarely challenged to prove these allegations. There is not and
                  never has been an imminent public health risk relating to
                  UTMD's products, and this statement attributed to Mr. Spears
                  is correct: "There's not a serious enough problem to say ..."
                  that. As a matter of fact, the FDA has a variety of remedies
                  to address device risks without any resort to the courts. None
                  of these has ever been applied to any UTMD device, because
                  none has been justified.





                  Finally, an attorney from FDA indicated as long ago as last
                  October that this case does not involve any allegations of
                  defective products. This case instead involves QSR allegations
                  that the agency has been unable to substantiate."

UTMD maintains support for the quality, performance, safety and effectiveness of
devices in distribution as these are manufactured daily by dedicated employees
complying with procedures that have been verified by independent experts. The
prospect of litigation is rarely welcome, but UTMD is confident that when the
FDA's allegations are scrutinized by the Court, aided by the power of discovery,
that UTMD will prevail.