NATICK, Mass. (AP) - Medical device manufacturer Boston Scientific Corp. has won another legal battle in its patent dispute against a rival maker of drug-coated stents.
A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a lower court's decision denying Cordis Corp.'s efforts to obtain a preliminary injunction against Boston Scientific's Taxus drug-coated stent.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the November decision by the U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del.
"I think the bottom line is this was the last opportunity to stop the sale of the Taxus stent," Boston Scientific spokesman Paul Donovan said.
A phone call to a Cordis spokeswoman on Friday was not immediately returned.
Stents are scaffold-like mesh-metal tubes implanted into coronary arteries to prevent blockages. The new models are coated with slow-release drugs to prevent scar tissue from forming.
The Taxus drug-coated stent, with a 70 percent market share according to Donovan, was federally approved for sale in March and the company has projected sales of up to $3.2 billion in 2005.
Cordis, a Miami Lakes, Fla.-based subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, sought the injunction in a case accusing Boston Scientific of infringing on a Cordis patent.
That case is scheduled to go to trial in June 2005, along with a case in which Boston Scientific accuses Cordis' Cypher stent of infringing on two Boston Scientific patents.
Natick-based Boston Scientific's claim of four other patent infringements by the Cypher system is scheduled for trial in October 2005.
Shares of Boston Scientific closed down 82 cents at $44.30 on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange, where shares of Johnson & Johnson closed down 8 cents at $55.71.
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On the Web: Boston Scientific Corp., http://www.bostonscientific.com
Cordis Corp., http://www.cordis.com
