Medtronic Inc. (MDT) will pay rival Abbott Laboratories (ABT)
$400 million as part of a legal settlement on stents and
stent-delivery systems.
It also will pay $42 million to device company Evysio, whose
stent patents Medtronic has licensed.
Medtronic expects to report a fiscal first-quarter charge
related to the settlement, which prevents the companies from suing
each other in the coronary stent and stent-delivery systems fields
for at least 10 years.
Medtronic said it has now resolved or settled substantially all
intellectual property litigation affecting the design and delivery
systems for its bare metal and drug-eluting stent franchise. It
said it will now focus more on efforts to improve health care for
patients with vascular disease.
Medtronic's Endeavor drug-coated stent, launched in the U.S. a
year ago, is failing to gain ground on the increasingly tough
competition amid questions about whether its heart-device industry
can grow.
Endeavor started strong, grabbing about one-fifth of the roughly
$2 billion domestic market shortly after winning U.S. Food and Drug
Administration approval. But it was knocked back when a new product
made by Abbott Labs and sold jointly with Boston Scientific Corp.
(BSX) launched in the summer. Recent analyst estimates suggest
Endeavor market share has shrunken to 10%.
-By Mike Barris, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2330;
mike.barris@dowjones.com