Cordis Corp. and Wyeth sued a pair of medical device giants, Abbott and Boston Scientific Corp., alleging infringement of a coatings patent for coronary stents.
It’s the latest chapter in the never-ending stent wars, which have seen a number of lawsuits and settlements in recent months.
The most recent round has the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary joining forces with pharma giant Wyeth over a patent for stent coatings. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for New Jersey, accuses Abbot and BoSci of violating the patent, issued Sept. 22 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, for “Medical Devices, Drugs Coatings and Methods for Maintaining the Drug Coatings Thereon.”
Cordis’ sirolimus-eluting Cypher stent goes head-to-head against Abbott’s Xience V everolimus-eluting stent (which Bo Sci sells under a private-label agreement as the Promus stent).
The lawsuit alleges that Abbott and Boston Scientific infringe the patent with every sale of the Xience V and Promus stents in the U.S. It seeks a judgment affirming the infringement, an injunction against sales of both stent models in the U.S. and unspecified damages and interest.
The lawsuit joins a long line of similar actions between the biggest players in the lucrative coronary stent market. Here’s a sampling:
- Boston Scientific already has a suit going against Cordis and Wyeth, seeking to invalidate another patent;
- A federal judge reversed a prior ruling in a 10-year-old suit filed by Boston Scientific against Cordis, setting the stage for yet another round in that case;
- Medtronic won a $57 million judgment from a jury on the first phase of a suit against Twin Cities rival AGA Medical Corp.;
- Medtronic settled a lawsuit against Saugus, Mass.-based W.L. Gore & Associates over patents covering self‐expanding medical devices;
- Medtronic agrees to a $400 million settlement with Abbott Laboratories and a $42 million “success payment” to evYsio Medical Devices LLC;
- Dr. Bruce Saffran wins a private settlement with Boston Scientific and sues Abbott for violating the same patent with the Xience V stent;
- OrbusNeich Medical Inc. slaps Boston Scientific with a lawsuit accusing BSC of patent infringement, breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets connected to the Taxus Liberté stent;
- And a federal appeals court decision in Boston Scientific’s long-running patent infringement battle with St. Jude Medical has wide-ranging implications for overseas sales of infringed patented products.