Medinol Sues Boston Scientific for Fraud and Theft

A lawsuit has been filed in a New York federal court by stent supplier Medinol, Ltd. (Tel Aviv, Israel), accusing Boston Scientific Corp. (Natick, MA, USA) of defrauding the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and of intellectual property theft. The suit also accuses Boston Scientific of breach of contract and failure to bring products to market.

Boston Scientific is Medinol's chief client, with worldwide distribution rights for Medinol's stents, and has been in negotiations to acquire Medinol. Currently, Boston Scientific holds a 22% stake in the company. According to Medinol, Boston Scientific has tried to buy another 64% of Medinol for about US$2 billion, after the owners initially asked for at least three times that amount.

Medinol alleges that Boston copied Medinol's stent manufacturing equipment and transferred it to a company called BBD in Ireland. Medinol also alleges that Boston Scientific copied the design of Medinol's stents but attributed them to BBD and called them by another product name, thereby defrauding the FDA.

Boston Scientific says Medinol's suit has no merit. "This lawsuit relies primarily on false accusations and baseless claims that Medinol apparently hopes will pressure Boston Scientific into paying an inflated price to acquire Medinol,” stated Paul Donovan, a spokesman for Boston Scientific. He explained that Medinol seeks an injunction that would prohibit Boston from marketing the NIR stent and would enable Medinol to sell its stents independent of Boston.

"Medinol is not entitled to the remedies it has requested,” he said. "Boston Scientific has lost revenue, market share, and market capitalization as a result of Medinol's refusal to develop and supply new stent products. We will seek full restitution for the losses resulting from Medinol's refusal to develop and supply new stent products.” He also noted that Boston's internal stent development program is a top priority of the company.




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