Radiologist continues stent infringement suits, sets sights on Abbott

New Jersey radiologist Bruce N. Saffran, MD, who was awarded about $500 million in a 2008 patent infringement case against Boston Scientific, filed suit Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas over Abbott's Xience V everolimus-eluting coronary stent.

"Abbott has willfully undertaken and carried out the aforesaid infringing activity with knowledge of the patent," according to Saffran’s lawsuit regarding U.S. Patent Number 5,653,760.

"Abbott believes that this patent is not valid and its product does not infringe," Abbott spokeswoman Adelle Infante said in response. "We will vigorously defend ourselves against these allegations."

In February 2008, the jury found that Boston Scientific’s Taxus Express and Taxus Liberte drug-eluting stent products infringe Saffran's patent and that the patent is valid. The jury ordered Boston Scientific to pay $431.9 million for infringing on the doctor’s patent, and U.S. District Judge T. John Ward in Texas added $69.4 million in pre-judgment interest.

While Boston Scientific appealed the case, both parties struck a deal in March and agreed on the reduced amount of $50 million.

Saffran, who obtained a patent for a drug-delivery device in 1997, did not ask to stop sales of the product, but is also pursuing a similar case pending against Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary Cordis, according to his lawyer, Eric Albritton.