Boston Sci payout to Medtronic amended Medtronic Inc., the Fridley maker of heart devices, agreed that a $250 million patent-infringement verdict won against Boston Scientific Corp. should be cut by almost $64 million, because a judge threw out part of the decision. The two companies agreed on the reduction after a federal judge in Texas said there was "no legally sufficient" basis for a jury to find that Boston Scientific's catheters infringe a Medtronic patent. In all, Medtronic had claimed nine models of Boston Scientific catheters violated a patent for materials used in the balloons that inflate arteries so that heart stents can be implanted.
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British panel hands J&J setback on pricing A British health-cost review panel rejected arguments by Johnson & Johnson's Cordis unit against a plan to cap the price of drug-coated heart stents, medicine-coated tubes that prop open clogged arteries. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence upheld a ruling that the stents cost no more than about $599, more than conventional bare-metal models, according to a statement on the London-based agency's website. Metal stents should typically cost about $261, the guidance said. Cordis' Cypher stent competes with Boston Scientific's Taxus, Abbott Laboratories' Xience and Medtronic's Endeavor devices.
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