Medtronic Inc. recently said a German appellate court upheld a favorable ruling that its CoreValve less-invasive replacement heart valve doesn’t infringe on a patent held by Irvine-based device maker Edwards Lifesciences Corp.
Medtronic, a Minnesota-based device maker with some 650 workers in Orange County, acquired Irvine’s CoreValve Inc. for $700 million last year.
The court upheld a lower court ruling that CoreValve’s devices use technology that’s not covered by Edwards’ Andersen valve system’s patent, which is scheduled to expire in 2011.
Edwards, which first lost the patent lawsuit in late 2008, is “disappointed by this decision on infringement” but will “continue to rigorously enforce” its patent portfolio, said Larry Wood, the device maker’s corporate vice president of transcathether valve replacement.
Edwards has filed a pair of similar lawsuits against CoreValve/Medtronic covering pat-ents in the U.S. and Britain. The U.S. case is scheduled to begin next month in the U.S. District Court of Delaware. The British case is scheduled to resume in an appeals court in May, following a lower court’s ruling in 2009 that CoreValve’s devices do not infringe upon Edwards’ patent.
Medtronic and Edwards are in a race to get transcatheter heart valves to market. These less-invasive valves are considered the biggest development in the business in years.
Surgeons insert them via a catheter through blood vessels in the leg or through an incision in the ribs, instead of cracking open a patient’s rib cage for open-heart surgery.
Edwards sells its Sapien transcatheter valve in Europe and could receive Food and Drug Administration approval for it in late 2011.
CoreValve’s device isn’t expected to be ready for commercial use in the U.S. until after 2012.
CoreValve Boss Turns to VC
In other CoreValve/Medtronic news, former CoreValve chief executive Daniel Lemaitre is moving to the venture capital world.
Lemaitre, who also is a former executive at Medtronic, joined Essex Woodlands Health Ventures to start a medical device investment fund.
The White Pine Medical fund, which Lemaitre will run, has received a financing commitment of up to $50 million, Essex Woodlands said.
The fund is going to target devices that offer “exceptional growth opportunities for companies that commercialize products that offer better, cost-effective and less invasive treatments,” Lemaitre said.
Essex Woodlands was founded 25 years ago and has offices in Palo Alto, Houston, New York and London. It has raised money for eight funds in its history and has almost $2.5 billion under management.
Apria Job Cuts
Lake Forest home healthcare provider Apria Healthcare Group Inc. has been relatively quiet since it went private roughly 18 months ago.
But a couple of newspapers have recently poked around Apria’s insides.
Earlier this month, the Tampa Tribune quoted Department of Labor documents that show Apria plans to cut as many as 79 jobs by March and shift work overseas. The article quoted a former Apria employee who said work was being sent to India and estimated about 70 jobs would be affected.
The Tribune learned about the potential job cuts through documents filed with the Labor Department’s Training Adjustment Assistance program, which helps Americans who have lost work because of foreign competition.
Apria spokeswoman Lisa Getson told the Tribune that a small percentage of the Florida jobs were directly sent overseas and that some jobs in Tampa were cut because the company is consolidating its billing centers throughout the U.S.
The company also is adding jobs elsewhere in the U.S.
Apria extended the positions of 18 billing center jobs through mid-March that were scheduled for layoffs in Jackson, Tenn., the company said.
Apria also is adding 50 jobs at one of its two Jackson locations, Getson told the Jackson Sun.
Apria went private in 2008 through a $1.7 billion buyout by New York private equity firm Blackstone Group LP.
Bits and Pieces:
Quality Systems Inc., an Irvine maker of software that doctors and dentists use to manage their practices, said its NextGen Healthcare Information Systems Inc. subsidiary entered a distribution deal with Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc. Ingram, the largest distributor of technology products, software and consumer electronics, said it would work with NextGen to recruit, train and support new partners through the distribution agreement … Tustin drug developer Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc. said that an article in the online edition of Current Cancer Therapy Reviews highlighted the long-term survival rates of brain cancer patients treated with Peregrine’s Cotara drug candidate. Cotara’s being tested in a second-phase clinical trial for glioblastoma multiforme, a particularly deadly version of brain cancer … Jim Corbett, chief executive of Vertos Medical Inc., an Aliso Viejo-based maker of medical devices to treat degenerative spinal diseases, participated in a panel held earlier this month by technology booster group Octane of Aliso Viejo about controversies surrounding new spine treatments.
