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German court rules CoreValve infringes Edwards' patent
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The District Court of Mannheim, Germany, has today ruled in favor of a suit of Edwards Lifesciences that claims Medtronic’s CoreValve transcatheter aortic valve infringes on a patent held by the company.
The ruling prohibits the sale of the CoreValve and CoreValve Evolut systems in Germany, a recall of these products and an accounting for past damages.
According to a press release issued by Edwards Lifesciences, the company filed the case in August 2012. The case relates to three patients, including the Spenser patent EP 2 055 266 B1, which is in effect until October 2022; the patent is in place in other European countries, including France, Italy and Spain. This patent is separately being contested at the European Patent Office.
“We are very pleased with the court's ruling. Edwards will continue to vigorously enforce our intellectual property to ensure continued innovation in the treatment of patients with severe aortic stenosis,” said Larry L. Wood, Edwards Lifesciences' corporate vice president of transcatheter heart valves, in the release.
In a separate release from Medtronic, the company said it plans to appeal the court’s ruling, and that the decision will limit options for physicians and their patients who need transcatheter aortic valve procedures, which the company believes is contrary to sound health policy.
The decision will affect commercial sales of the CoreValve system in Germany only, Medtronic said, and will have no impact on any of the company’s other products, including its other transcatheter valves. The company said its revenue from the affected products in Germany was less than 0.5% of its total revenue in fiscal year 2013.