Federal Circuit denies CardiAQ injunction request against Neovasc
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed a district court decision which stated that CardiAQ is not entitled to injunctive relief, despite a $91 million damages payout from Neovasc.
The US District Court for the District of Massachusetts had earlier ruled that medical devices company CardiAQ was entitled to damages following trade secrets misappropriation by rival company Neovasc.
In a decision handed down on Friday, September 1, the court stated that CardiAQ’s request for an injunction that would suspend Neovasc from a project on transcatheter mitral valve implants (TMVI) project for 18 months was denied.
The TMVI originally developed by CardiAQ can be delivered to the heart by a catheter rather than open-heart surgery.
CardiAQ engaged Neovasc to help construct a part of the device. The joint work ended after about one year, but during that year, Neovasc secretly launched its own TMVI project and secured a patent on it, US number 8,579,964, without acknowledging anyone from CardiAQ as co-inventors.
The court said on the matter: “The proposed 18-month suspension would be duplicative of the monetary relief, and is not warranted given the uncertainty in the TMVI market, the impact the injunction would have on Neovasc, and the public’s interest in having access to a potentially life-saving technology.”
But the court also stated that CaridAQ had legitimate grievances for suing Neovasc, as it had misappropriated several of CardiAQ’s trade secrets. While Neovasc worked alongside CardiAQ, according to the court, the principal Neovasc employee in the collaboration, Randy Lane, used information shared by CardiAQ to develop a TMVI for Neovasc.
In particular, CardiAQ felt that both founders of the company, cardiac surgeon Arshad Quadri and engineer Brent Ratz, should have been named as co-creators on the ‘964 patent.
CardiAQ was formed in 2006 by Quadri and Ratz with the aim of developing a prosthetic mitral heart valve that could be implanted via a catheter entering the body through a small incision in the patient’s leg, making open-heart surgery redundant.
The TMVI itself is made up of a metal frame to which valve leaflets made from animal tissue are sewn. In June 2009 Neovasc contacted CardiAQ to advertise its pericardial tissue products and services. This led to CardiAQ and Neovasc working together on the TMVI.
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