Angiotech, J&J cardiovascular news

The U.K.’s House of Lords overturned a U.K. Court of Appeals decision that Angiotech’s European Patent No. 0,706,376 covering paclitaxel-coated stents is invalid. Last year, the U.K. Court of Appeals upheld a March 2006 High Court decision that the U.K. version of the patent was invalid and lacked inventive step (see BioCentury, Jan. 22, 2007). The patent was challenged in the U.K. in 2005 by Johnson & Johnson’s Conor Medsystems Inc. subsidiary, although Conor and Angiotech settled all outstanding patent litigation covering coated stents in the U.K., the Netherlands and Australia last year (see BioCentury, Sept. 24, 2007). ...