Becton Dickinson & Co. (NYSE:BDX) is facing a patent infringement lawsuit filed by VLV Assoc., a small medical device company based in New Jersey, accusing it of infringing VLV’s patent for a "bloodless catheter."
VLV first approached its larger neighbor, Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based BD, about licensing the patent in January 2006, according to court documents. No deal was struck, however, and in August 2010 BD asked the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to re-examine the patent.
The patent examiner rejected all claims in the patent, according to the lawsuit, prompting VLV to appeal that ruling.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for New Jersey, alleges that BD’s InSite Autoguard catheter infringes the patent. VLV wants a jury trial for the case and is seeking to bar BD from making and selling the device, damages, any profits realized from sales of the device, pre- and post-judgment interest and legal fees.
More DePuy execs, doc to be deposed in ASR lawsuit
Dr. Thomas Vail, who helped developed DePuy’s recalled metal-on-metal ASR implant alongside Dr. Thomas Schmalzreid, is slated to be deposed as part of a class-action product liability lawsuit in Ohio.
Vail pulled down royalties of $552,000 in 2009 and 2010, according to Bloomberg, for his services stumping for the device with concern physicians. According to a lawsuit obtained by the news service, "Dr. Vail, Dr. Schmalzried and the DePuy representatives assured the orthopedic surgeons during these meetings that the ASR System was safe, was the best product on the market, had an excellent track record and a low and acceptable failure rate."
J&J launched a voluntary recall of the ASR devices in 2010, acknowledging unusually high rates of revision surgery within 5 years of implantation. By then about 83,000 people had already received with the device.
Lawsuits had already begun piling up, gaining momentum after the recall announcement and consolidating into a multi-district case under an Ohio federal court judge by Dec. 2010.
It could all add up to a big nut for J&J to swallow, based on the experience of Sulzer Medica AG in 2001. That Swiss medical device maker’s recall of a hip implant, placed in about 31,000 patients, settled in 2002 for $1 billion (about 2,760 patients had revision surgeries attributed to that recall, according to Reuters). The DePuy ASR recall is 3 times the size of the Sulzer pullback.
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Galleon probe widens to take in Abbott’s $2.8B Advanced Medical Optics deal
A federal probe into insider trading in the medical device business involving a notorious hedge fund, the Galleon Group, widened last week to include Abbott‘s (NYSE:ABT) $2.8 billion buyout of Advanced Medical Optics in 2009.
The investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles is now focusing on the relationship between Goldman Sachs managing partner Matthew Korenberg and Paul Yook, a former portfolio manager at Galleon, according to the Los Angeles Times. Korenberg worked on the AMO deal and is suspected of having passed confidential data on the deal to Yook.
Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam was convicted last year of 14 counts of conspiracy and securities fraud and is serving an 11-year prison sentence.
It’s not the first accusation that insiders dealt confidential information on the AMO/Abbott deal. Last year former Orioles great Doug DeCinces agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle insider trading charges, after California lawyer Dean Goetz paid $24,000 to settle similar charges.
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Fake Medtronic merch lands California woman in prison
A California woman is slated to spend nearly 4 years behind bars after pleading guilty to a $2.1 million scheme to bilk Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) for non-existent trade show schwag.
Jennifer Rutherford, 40, copped to the 5-year scheme last year. Last Friday Judge Patrick Schiltz of the U.S. District Court for Minnesota sentenced Rutherford to 45 months in prison.
Between June 2004 and June 2009 Rutherford created three shell companies, which she pretended to buy merchandise from. She then submitted the invoices for the non-existent merchandise to Medtronic for payment.
At the time Rutherford worked for Kyphon Inc., which was acquired by Medtronic in July 2007. In her role as senior marketing manager she was responsible for vetting potential marketing supply vendors for merchandise the company could hand out at trade shows and conferences.
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