Boston Scientific settles Cordis stent war for $716 million

September 30, 2009 by MassDevice staff

Boston Scientific Corp. agreed to shell out $716 million to settle 14 patent infringement suits with Cordis Corp., closing a major front in the stent wars.

The Natick, Mass.-based medical device giant said it will pay the settlement in cash using a reserve set aside for one of the lawsuits.

The suits aren't the only cases pending between BSX and Cordis parent Johnson & Johnson, but president and CEO Ray Elliott said Boston Scientific will continue to work on resolving the others.

The settled cases, involving lawsuits in U.S., Canadian, Belgian, German, French and Italian courts, include the so-called Palmaz-NIR suit, involving a patent by the radiologist who invented stents, Julio Palmaz.

The estimated settlement cost in that case would make up most of the $716 million nut to settle it and the other 13 suits.

Johnson & Johnson owns that patent and in 2000 won a lawsuit alleging that an early BoSci stent, the NIR, infringed the technology, according to the Wall Street Journal (paid). Boston Scientific appealed, but told investors last year that it expected that case to cost at least $703 million.

At least three other lawsuits between the stent colossi still have a pulse, including a Cordis suit over Boston Scientific's Express, Taxus, Taxus Liberté, Promus and NIR stents and a Boston Scientific suit over Cordis' Cypher drug-eluting stent.

The announcement is not the first big-ticket settlement between medical device leviathans. In July, Medtronic paid $444 million to arch-rival Abbott to settle a stent patent lawsuit.

Here's a complete list of the cases in the latest settlement:

1. Cordis Corp. v. Medtronic Vascular Inc., Boston Scientific Corp. et al.
2. Johnson & Johnson Inc., Expandable Grafts Partnership & Cordis Corp. v. Boston Scientific Ltd./Boston Scientifique LTEE
3. Johnson & Johnson Inc. v. Boston Scientific Ltd./Boston Scientifique LTEE
4. Boston Scientific Corp. v. Johnson & Johnson
5. Schneider (Europe) GmbH v. Johnson & Johnson Medical NV
6. Schneider (Europe) GmbH v. Cordis Medizinische Apparate GmbH
7. Schneider (Europe) GmbH v. Cordis
8. Schneider (Europe) GmbH v. Johnson & Johnson Medical S.P.A.
9. Cordis v. Schneider (damage request)
10. Boston Scientific Scimed Inc. v. Cordis Corp.
11. Boston Scientific Scimed Inc. v. Cordis Medizinische Apparate GmbH
12. Boston Scientific Scimed Inc. v. Cordis Medizinische Apparate GmbH
13. Scimed Life Systems Inc. v. Cordis Corp.
14. Cordis Corp. v. Scimed Life Systems Inc.

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