Irvine-based Masimo Corp. stopped in its tracks a potential patent battle with one of its original equipment manufacturing customers.
The maker of patient monitoring devices said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this month that it would receive a $25 million settlement from Shenzhen, China-based Mindray Medical International Ltd.
Mindray and Masimo also signed an agreement that they won’t sue each other, and Mindray assigned Masimo certain patents, Mindray said.
Masimo originally sued Mindray in 2013, accusing the Chinese company of infringing on nine of its patents and failing to make its best efforts to promote the adoption of Masimo’s pulse oximeter technology.
Mindray agreed that, from the settlement date through December 2027, “it would purchase all pulse oximetry technology components for Mindray patient monitoring products sold in the U.S. and Canada from Masimo.”
Masimo is already Mindray’s primary supplier for those components, Mindray said.
Masimo isn’t a stranger to patent battles. Its history has included several disputes, particularly with longtime rival Nellcor—now part of Dublin, Ireland-based Medtronic PLC—a situation that led to a $164.5 million jury award in 2005.
Allergan in Patent Fight
Allergan PLC, whose eye drug hub is in Irvine, is taking the offensive in a patent fight against a potential generic competitor of one of its core glaucoma drugs.
The company recently asked a federal judge to rule against a contention that extortion claims are pre-empted by federal law in a suit that seeks to block New York-based hedge fund Ferrum Ferro Capital LLC’s attempts to invalidate a patent on Allergan’s Combigan glaucoma drug.
Allergan originally sued Ferrum in June, alleging that the latter’s filing on an “inter partes review” was meant to coerce the drugmaker into a settlement. Inter partes review is a procedure for challenging the validity of patents before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Ferrum had filed a challenge against the Combigan patent in March, arguing it’s invalid because it’s been described in patents for a pair of existing eye drugs that make up Combigan.
Allergan is based in Dublin, Ireland, and operates from Parsippany, N.J. The company’s eye drugs and aesthetic medicine businesses are in Irvine and are a legacy from the old Allergan Inc., which Actavis PLC bought for $72.5 billion in March. Allergan and New York-based Pfizer Inc. are set to combine in a $155 billion mega deal.
Edwards to Split Stock
Irvine-based heart valve maker Edwards Lifesciences Corp. said its board approved a two-for-one stock split.
The company said in a news release that stockholders of record as of today would be issued one additional share of common stock for each share owned as of that date, and that the additional shares would be distributed Dec. 11.
Edwards’ stock split will increase the device maker’s number of common shares outstanding to 216 million as opposed to 108 million as of the record date.
It’s only the second stock split since Edwards became an independent public company in 2000 after spinning off from Chicago-based Baxter International Inc. Edwards was previously Baxter’s cardiovascular unit.
Shares of Edwards are up 22% since the start of the year, with a recent market value of $16.9 billion.
New CIO at Hoag
Patrick Anderson is the new senior vice president and chief information officer for Newport Beach-based Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, replacing Tim Moore.
Anderson, who has more than 25 years of healthcare leadership experience, served most recently as senior vice president and chief information officer at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans.
Hoag said Anderson was “instrumental in the growth and innovation” of Ochsner through population management strategy, development of telemedicine systems, and deployment of clinical and business system technology across a 25-hospital network.
Bits & Pieces
Kaiser Permanente Anaheim; West Anaheim Medical Center; Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center; Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center; Huntington Beach Hospital; La Palma Intercommunity Hospital; Children’s Hospital of Orange County; and UC Irvine Medical Center were among 95 California hospitals recognized by the Washington, D.C.-based Joint Commission as “top performers.” Garden Grove, Huntington Beach and La Palma have been “top performers” for all five years of the program. … Irvine-based ResearchDx appointed Dr. Shelly Gunn as its chief medical officer and medical director of its Pacific Diagnostics unit. ResearchDx is a contract research organization.
