Medtronic and Edwards settle heart valve litigation
Medical device rivals Medtronic and Edwards Lifesciences have agreed to settle all patent litigation, including cases related to transcatheter heart valves.
The agreement provides that the parties dismiss all pending litigation matters, as well as any patent office actions between them.
The parties also agreed not to sue each other anywhere in the world over patents related to aortic and all other transcatheter heart valves for eight years.
Medtronic will pay Edwards a one-off payment of $750 million in addition to ongoing royalty payments until April 2022, based on a percentage of Medtronic’s CoreValve product sales, in payments of at least $40 million a year.
Neither Medtronic nor Edwards admitted that their patents infringe, or that any of their disputed patents are invalid.
May 20’s settlement marks the end of a long-running patent dispute between the companies. In January, the US District Court for the District of Delaware found Medtronic’s CoreValve product to wilfully infringe one of Edwards’ patents, and awarded it $394 million in damages.
Reacting to the settlement, John Liddicoat, president of the structural heart business at Medtronic, said: “This agreement brings to an end years of disputes between our companies related to TAVI [transcatheter aortic valve implantation] patents, and allows both companies to make their respective therapies available to physicians and patients around the world.
“With this resolution, we are pleased that Medtronic will be able to continue to provide the CoreValve System, as well as other products, to patients who need them in the US and abroad without the overhang of any potential injunction or additional damages.”
Edwards’ chairman and chief executive, Michael Mussallem, said the company was pleased to reach the agreement.
