Patent Law

Stent for Rent

By Gary Odom and Jordan Kuhn

Over a decade ago, radiologist Dr. Bruce Saffran invented a drug-eluting porous sheet, and was granted 5,653,760. Boston Scientific liked the idea. Imitation resulted in flattery costing $431.9 million, an 8% royalty on U.S. sales, and 6% on foreign sales, from 2004 through last September. The award was reputedly the sixth largest in history. Hard-nosed BS will try to get presiding Eastern District of Texas Judge T. John Ward to overturn the jury verdict; barring that, appeal.

Gary Hoffman of Dickstein Shapiro, lead attorney for Saffron:

The big companies have attitudes in which they'll fight things to the last breath. Boston Scientific had a reputation for being extremely aggressive in litigation and putting out all the stops. Yet we were successful in overcoming those attempts.

Saffran's patent claims have application to bone or coronary stents. Bone stents accelerate healing from a fracture. Heart stents are mesh tubes that prop open coronary arteries after they have been surgically cleared of fatty plaque. Boston Scientific and a Cordis, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, dominate the market for stents, coated with drugs which release to accelerate healing and prevent post-surgical scar tissue from creating new coronary blockages. Patent disputes over stents are common; the claims are over small differences in stent design and the drugs they are coated with.

Saffran has a similar suit pending against Cordis in the same court. Cordis has a coronary stent patent suit going against Boston Scientific that went to appeal and was remanded back to Delaware district court.

Saffran did not request an injunction; a smart move, in that he would not have gotten one.

Full post as published by The Patent Prospector on February 12, 2008 (boomark / email).