Ross Law
2 min read
In This Article:
Innovative Health has been awarded $147m in damages from a lawsuit against Biosense Webster relating to the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) business’s policy to withhold cardiac mapping support services from hospitals that chose to purchase reprocessed catheters from Innovative instead of Biosense’s new devices.
Originally seeking $143m in damages, Innovative first filed its lawsuit in 2022, arguing that Biosense’s policy unfairly restricted competition and violated both the Sherman Act and California’s Cartwright Act that prohibit market monopolisation. Initially dismissed in 2022, the case was later revived by the Ninth Circuit in 2023, paving the way for a jury trial.
Delivering a unanimous verdict in a California court, a federal jury found that J&J subsidiary Biosense Webster violated federal and state antitrust laws by withholding clinical support to hospitals using Innovative Health’s FDA-regulated, reprocessed catheters.
Daniel J Vukelich, president and CEO of the Association of Medical Device Reprocessors (AMDR), commented: “For too long, J&J has used tying arrangements and other tactics to interfere with fair competition from lower-cost, FDA-regulated, reprocessed ‘single-use’ devices (SUD).
“We hope this jury’s message will be heard loud and clear: hospitals want to reduce costs and greenhouse gas emissions by using more reprocessed SUDs without fear of retribution by their original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).”
Accompanying Vukelich’s remarks, AMDR advised hospitals to add guardrails to their processes and reminded them that OEMs cannot lawfully revoke support, void warranties, withdraw service, or otherwise retaliate for using FDA-regulated reprocessed SUDs.
The AMDR said: "Make it a policy to document and escalate any such threat and remind sales reps this activity is illegal and will not be tolerated."
Other AMDR advisements included tracking SKU pricing over time across vendors to skirt potential price-gouging practices on OEMs’ re-processable equipment models and to “explicitly deny” any equipment updates that "just happen" to block reprocessed devices or force obsolescence.
The AMDR concluded: "Adopt these guardrails as formal policy, train staff to spot violations, and remind OEM partners that the rules of engagement have changed – hospitals will no longer put up with anti-reprocessing sabotage."
Medical Device Network has reached out to Innovative Health and J&J for comment on the lawsuit.
"Innovative Health awarded $147m in antitrust lawsuit against J&J’s Biosense Webster" was originally created and published by Medical Device Network, a GlobalData owned brand.
