Category Archives: Legal News

Blog, Business Law, Drug Companies, Legal News

Medtronic ordered by jury to pay $106.5M to Colibri over TAVR patent infringement

By 

Nick Paul Taylor Contributor

Dive Brief:

  •  Medtronic was ordered by a jury to pay $106.5 million for infringing a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) patent.
  • Colibri Heart Valve filed a lawsuit against Medtronic in 2019, accused it of infringing two patents related to the delivery and controlled release of replacement heart valves, according to court filings.
  • The federal jury convened in California to cover the case sided with Colibri, concluding that three of Medtronic’s Evolut systems induce doctors to infringe a patent, it added.

Dive Insight:

Colibri developed a “self-expanding heart valve device that includes cross-linked biological tissue and a delivery system that can be guided through a patient’s artery to the heart where it is positioned and used to replace diseased valves,” according to a lawsuit it filed in 2020 in a California federal court.

In its lawsuit, Colorado-based Colibri used identical language to describe Medtronic’s TAVR devices and argued the portfolio infringes its patents. 

Colibri said that its CEO, Joseph Horn, gave a presentation to Medtronic employees in May 2014 under a nondisclosure agreement. Horn’s presentation covered Colibri’s heart valve products, delivery systems and methods. Medtronic brought a CoreValve TAVR system to market in 2014 and went on to release several upgrades. Colibri’s lawsuit notes similarities between Medtronic’s devices and its patents.  

The jury ruled that Medtronic must pay Colibri $106.5 million for patent infringement.

“Medtronic strongly disagrees with the ruling and will continue to vigorously defend against these allegations at the appellate level,” a company spokesperson rote in an emailed statement. “In the meantime, Colibri’s patent has no impact on ongoing operations, as the patent expired in January 2022.”

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Blog, Criminal, Legal News

Dennis Rader, ‘BTK Killer,’ says he didn’t speak to Bryan Kohberger

The BTK Killer has axed rumors he was in contact with accused quadruple killer Bryan Kohberger.  

“No on Kohberger all around,” the convicted serial killer, whose real name is Dennis Rader, told TMZ in response to a query about whether he had connected with the 28-year-old accused murderer of four college students in Moscow, ID. 

Kohberger, who was arrested on Dec. 30 at his parents’ home in Albrightsville, Pa., had previously studied under forensic psychologist and true crime writer Katherine Ramsland while attending DeSales University in Central Valley, Pa.

Ramsland, the author of 69 books, wrote a headline-making opus about the BTK — “Bind, Torture, Kill” — killer, in collaboration with her subject, who is currently serving 10 life sentences for slaughtering 10 people in Wichita, KS, from 1974 to 1991. Rader had mocked police for years with letters and newspaper articles, until the coldblooded murderer was finally nabbed in 2005.

Rader’s estranged daughter, Kerri Raison, told NewsNation that she was “pretty shocked” to learn that there was “potentially a connection to my father.” She suggested that her father could have contacted or had an influence on Kohberger, considering that Ramsland had been his teacher.  Rader admitted that this theory wasn’t all that far-fetched.

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Blog, Business Law, Drug Companies, Legal News

Oklahoma AG announces 4 new opioid settlements worth $226M

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma entered settlement agreements with three major pharmacy chains and an opioid manufacturer totaling more than $226 million, Attorney General John O’Connor announced Wednesday.

Including the new settlements with drugmaker Allergan and pharmacy chains CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, Oklahoma has received more than $900 million from opioid makers and distributors to help address the state’s opioid crisis, O’Connor said.

“The opioid crisis has inflicted unspeakable pain on Oklahoma families and caused the deaths of thousands of Oklahomans,” O’Connor said in a statement. “Between 2016 and 2020, more than 3,000 Oklahomans died from opioid overdoses.”

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Blog, Business Law, Drug Companies, Legal News

Justice Department files suit against one of largest drug distributors in U.S.

The Justice Department on Thursday filed a civil lawsuit against AmerisourceBergen Corp., one of the largest drug distributors in the country, alleging that it failed to report “at least hundreds of thousands” suspicious opioid orders to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Under the Controlled Substances Act, pharmaceutical distributors must monitor the orders they receive for controlled substances, and are required to flag any they deem suspicious to the DEA. According to the filing, AmerisourceBergen repeatedly failed to do so since 2014, despite being made aware of significant “red flags” at pharmacies across the country.

“In the midst of a catastrophic opioid epidemic AmerisourceBergen allegedly altered its internal systems in a way that reduced the number of orders that would be flagged as suspicious. And even up to the orders that AmerisourceBergen identified as suspicious, the company routinely failed to report those suspicious orders,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said during a call with members of the media on Thursday. “In short, the government’s complaint alleges that for years AmerisourceBergen prioritized profits over its legal obligations and over Americans’ well-being.”

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Blog, Business Law, Criminal, International, Legal News, Organized Crime

Malta, the Mafia’s paradise

The EU’s smallest member state, Malta, has become the Mafia’s El Dorado. This was the shocking conclusion of a study commissioned by the European Parliament’s Martin Schirdewan.

The report shows how Italian mafia clans laundered billions of euros through online gaming platforms in Malta between 2015 and 2022.

Four billion euros of assets were confiscated through investigations into online gaming related to Malta. The study found that “criminals, including those from Calabria’s ‘Ndrangheta and Sicily’s Cosa Nostra, have become part of the Maltese gaming sector through companies they set up and which they used to launder huge sums of money”.

Why is Malta so attractive to criminal organisations? Why are Mafia bosses so keen on Malta? What makes Malta such a haven for some of the most feared tough guys in the criminal world?

The answer was spelt out by Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri.  He was compelled to admit that there wasn’t a single applicant for the vacant post of Deputy Police Commissioner.

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