B. Braun Medical said today it, along with its subsidiaries filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Becton Dickinson & Co. (NYSE:BDX) over 10 U.S. patents related to IV catheter safety mechanisms.
Bethlehem, Pa.- and Melsungen, Germany-based B. Braun said it is seeking an injunction and damages from Becton Dickinson for infringing on B. Braun’s patents through its manufacturing and distribution of its BD Insyte Autoguard BC IV catheter and the BD Nexiva closed IV catheter system.
“B. Braun works tirelessly to bring new and improved products onto the market, and invests a significant portion of our financial assets in research and development. We are committed to working with customers and users of our products to improve the level of care and safety across the medical field. Part of that commitment is enforcing B. Braun’s hard-earned intellectual property rights when necessary to keep inferior or infringing products off the market, and to support our continued investments,” chief marketing officer Rob Albert said in a press release.
B. Braun said it filed its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, and touted previous wins in Germany, Austria and the European Patent Office involving a EU counterpart to 3 of the patents involved in the current suit.
The company added that it has additional lawsuits involving foreign counterparts of the patents in question pending in Belgium, Australia and the Netherlands.
Last month, B. Braun agreed to pay $7.8 million and agreed to the facts in a non-prosecution agreement to avoid criminal charges that it sold contaminated saline syringes.
Braun bought the contaminated syringes from a company called Am2Pat, despite knowing beforehand of manufacturing problems at the North Carolina plant where the syringes were made, federal prosecutors said.
But less than 2 months later Braun was forced to recall the syringes because a new radiation sterilization process caused particulates to develop in the saline, the prosecutors said.