The bad news just keeps on coming for Medtronic Inc., the Minneapolis-based medical device giant.
Recent weeks have brought a string of reverses to the Twin Cities collossus, including a nearly $180 million judgment against it in a pedicle screw patent dispute with DePuy Spine Inc., the recall of nearly 60,000 insulin infusion sets and its inclusion in a “qui tam” whistleblower lawsuit along with six other firms that stand accused of promoting the off-label use of microwave cardiac ablation products and bilking the Medicare system.
The latest blow is a $400 million settlement with another of its arch-rivals, Abbott Laboratories, and a $42 million “success payment” to evYsio Medical Devices LLC in its ongoing patent dispute over vascular stents.
Medtronic said the settlement calls for both sides to refrain from suing each other for at least 10 years. The evYsio payment is for a stent design technology sublicense to Abbott.
The settlement clears the way for Medtronic, which says it’s “resolved or settled substantially all intellectual property litigation” affecting its stents program, to redouble its efforts in that arena.