Boston Scientific and Medtronic lose court decision to Johnson and Johnson

Boston Scientific has announced the decision by the US District Court in Delaware granting a motion from Johnson & Johnson for entry of final judgement and denying the firm the right to a new trial.

This relates to a case that originally finished in 2000 with a jury awarding Johnson & Johnson $324 million (178 million pounds) in damages as a result of Boston Scientific’s sale of its NIR stent product.

“The court also awarded pre-judgement interest at prime rate based on after-tax damages,” the company said.

The court will enter final judgement on September 30th 2008, while Boston Scientific said it would appeal this decision.

Boston Scientific no longer sells the NIR stent.

Following the announcement of this decision, Seth Fischer, company group chairman for the Cordis franchise belonging to Johnson & Johnson expressed the company’s pleasure with the result.

Under the ruling, Medtronic will also have to pay Boston Scientific a sum of $271 million as a result of the case involving the Palmaz balloon expandable stent patent.

In June 2008, Boston Scientific announced a definitive agreement to sell its non-strategic investments as part of proposals to boost shareholder vale and better focus on its core businesses.