Appeals court heart device decision could benefit Abbott

Boston Scientific Corp., the second- biggest maker of implanted heart devices, won an appeals court ruling in a patent-infringement case against Johnson & Johnson which could also benefit Libertyville Township-based Abbott Laboratories in Lake County.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington yesterday upheld a lower court ruling that four patents on drug-coated stents owned by J&J's Cordis unit are invalid because the company failed to accurately describe the invention. The case is one of multiple disputes between J&J and Boston Scientific over stents, mesh tubes that prop open arteries.

The decision may benefit Abbott, which is being sued by Cordis over the same technology and had won a district court ruling last year that the patents were invalid. Abbott makes Xience stents and licenses the Promus stent to Natick, Massachusetts-based Boston Scientific.

Cordis's Cypher stent uses rapamycin, also called sirolimus, to limit the growth of scar tissue that can cause the artery to narrow. Cordis's patents were for compounds derived from rapamycin, and the appeals court ruling centered on whether scientists had actually done research on derivatives as Cordis claimed or the company merely added language to the patent that any potential analog is covered.

The case stemmed from Boston Scientific lawsuits that sought rulings that the Promus stent wasn't infringing the patents. Promus uses the compound everolimus to prevent tissue growth.

Boston Scientific last year agreed to pay New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J $1.73 billion to end some of the other patent lawsuits between the companies over stent technology.