Stent Manufacturer Medinol have filed patent infringement charges against Boston Sicentific once again, this time before a Swiss adjudicator. The charges relate to the new Boston Scientific Stents Liberte and Taxuas Liberte.
Medinol, an Israeli company that was established in 1995 by Judith and Kobi Richter, entered into an agreement with Boston Scientific, a worldwide developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices under which Medinol would develop and manufacture stents for the US company.
In 1997, Boston Scientific set up a secret factory to produce stents themselves. Medinol sued Boston Scientific for a massive $4.5 billion, claiming that Boston was infringing their was using its IPR to produce stents.
Medinol won a $750 million legal settlement from Boston Scientific Corp. over sales of coronary stents in September and announced plans to pursue royalties on the next-generation Boston Scientific stent, the “Liberte” and the “Taxus Liberte” drug-coated stent, which Boston Scientific had started to distribute in Europe after winning regulatory approval there. Boston intends to launch the device in the United States later this year after getting the relevant approvals. Boston Scientific claims that the new stents do not infringe any of Medinol’s patents.
The world wide stent market is estimated at around five billion dollars a year. Interestingly, the prior settlement for Breach of Contract and stealing confidential knowhow, with previous patent infringement charges having been thrown out of court.
Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific are the only two companies licensed to market drug coated stents in the States. They have sued and counter-sued each other for patent infringement.
We await the outcome of this recent development with interest.
