Abbott Laboratories in patent infringement claim

Abbott Laboratories and its Perclose unit are the subject of a patent infringement claim from Sutura regarding its patents for vascular and cardiovascular suturing.

A complaint was filed this month with the United States District Court alleging the infringements of Sutura’s patents by Aboott and Perclose with their Closer range of products.

Sutura’s SuperStitch medical devices are designed to use existing catheter sheath introducer or cannula in fluroscopically guided procedures and through arteriotomy in open surgical procedures to provide sutured closure of the site.

David Teckman, president and chief executive officer of Sutura, said: “We believe that Abbott and Perclose have gained well over $500 million (254.9 million pounds) in Closer-related revenue at our expense.”

He added that it felt that the Closer products directly inhibited sales of the SuperStitch vascular suturing device offered by Sutura, which are covered by a number of patents from 1999.

The company is seeking a court injunction against Abbott and Perclose to prevent the development, use or sale of devices that it feels infringe the company’s intellectual property rights with regards to its SuperStitch technology.

Last week, Abbott reported that it had pledged over $5.6 million to health organisations through the Abbott Fund throughout 2006.