Court Orders Preliminary Injunction On US Sales Of Medtronic's CoreValve System

(RTTNews) - Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (EW) said Friday that the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware has granted a preliminary injunction limiting the sale of Medtronic Inc.'s (MDT) CoreValve system in the United States.

The court ordered the injunction to go into effect in seven business days. Friday's hearing related to a federal jury decision in 2010 that CoreValve willfully infringes Edwards' U.S. Andersen transcatheter aortic valve replacement patent.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Chief Judge Gregory Sleet ordered Edwards and Medtronic to confer on what instances the CoreValve device could continue to be used in the treatment of U.S. patients at centers currently trained on CoreValve. There is a large body of evidence demonstrating the safety and performance of the Edwards SAPIEN valves, and the company remains committed to ensuring patients have appropriate access to transcatheter therapy.

The case was initiated by Edwards in 2008. On April 1, 2010, a federal jury found Medtronic willfully infringed Edwards' U.S. Andersen patent and awarded damages. In Nov. 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the jury decision; in October 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Medtronic's appeal.

In a separate case, a federal jury in January found that Medtronic CoreValve had willfully infringed Edwards' U.S. Cribier transcatheter heart valve patent, and awarded damages to Edwards in that trial.