Medical technology company CareFusion Corp.–spun out by Ohio’s Cardinal Health late last summer–has sued Medtronic Inc., accusing the Fridley, Minn., medical device giant of monopolistic and predatory practices in the market for products to treat compression fractures of spinal vertebrae.
“CareFusion has been the victim of a scheme by the defendants to keep competitors out of the minimally invasive vertebral compression fracture treatment product market and the alternative kyphoplasty product market,” CareFusion states in its lawsuit.
The schemes by Medtronic and its Medtronic Spine LLC and Kyphon units include buying assets from companies to illegally corner the market for these products and buying invalid or unenforceable patents related to the products and then threatening to enforce them, CareFusion said in the suit filed March 15 in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif.
“Medtronic is aware of the filing of CareFusion’s recent complaint,” the company said in a written statement. “Medtronic expects to prevail in its defense of this complaint and will file its response to the complaint with the court at the appropriate time. Medtronic will also continue to provide its health-restoring, commercially available products for this procedure and defend and enforce its [intellectual property] rights.”
Kyphoplasty has been driving growth in the vertebral compression fracture market in the United States, according to ResearchViews. During this minimally invasive procedure, a small, balloon-like device is inserted and inflated inside the vertebra to create a cavity into which a bone-like acrylic cement is injected.
However, Medtronic CEO Bill Hawkins has been unhappy with the performance of some of his company’s spine businesses. For instance, the company is still trying to swallow its 2007 acquisition of Kyphon Inc., which has been dragging down revenue and profits.
CareFusion said in its complaint that Medtronic and its spine units “have eliminated competition and have obtained approximately 85 percent or more market share in the minimally invasive vertebral compression fracture treatment product market and approximately 97 percent or more in the alternative kyphoplasty product market.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“Defendants have engaged in predatory conduct to eliminate CareFusion and others as viable competitors,” according to the suit. “In doing so, defendants have violated the antitrust laws of the United States.”
CareFusion asked the court for “relief from the harm that defendants’ illegal scheme has caused” by stopping Medtronic from using these practices.
| From: | GMB-CFN-PR <[email protected]> |
| To: | [email protected] <[email protected]> |
| Cc: | |
| Subject: | RE: Medtronic lawsuit – 1 out of 4 emails |
| Date: | 03/26/2010 |
| Time: | 06:15 PM |
| Attachments: | Exh G-K.ZIPX, Medtronic Complaint.pdf, Exh A-F.ZIPX |
| View message contents in:
Select Encoding:UTF-8 (Unicode)US English (US-ASCII)Japan (ISO)Western European (ISO) |
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| Hi Mary – The lawsuit file is large, so I can send it to you in a series of four emails. Attached is the first out of four emails.
Thanks, Suzanne Hatcher CareFusion 858.617.2226 direct Fusing technology and intelligence to improve patient care |
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