Tag: Medical Equipment and Devices

On June 4, 1999 an administrative law judge dismissed charges against VISX, a key developer of laser eye surgery equipment and technology, known as photorefractive keratectomy (PRK). According to the 1998 administrative complaint., VISX and Summit Technology, the only two firms legally able to market equipment for PRK, placed their competing patents in a patent pool and shared the proceeds each and every time a Summit or VISX laser was used. The administrative law judge also dismissed charges that VISX acquired a key patent by inequitable conduct and fraud on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, ruling that complaint counsel failed to present evidence that an act of fraud was committed since information was not willfully withheld from the patent office. A final order settled the price fixing allegations in the 1998 complaint. On February 7, 2001, the Commission dismissed its complaint after the U.S. patent and Trademark Office issued a Reexamination Certificate of U.S. Patent No. 5,108,388.

Tyco settled antitrust concerns relating to its acquisition of Mallinckrodt, Inc. Tyco agreed to divest its endotracheal tube business to Hudson RCI.

Final order settles charges that Sorin Biomedica S.p.A.'s acquisition of COBE Cardiovascular, Inc. would eliminate competition in the United states market for research, development, manufacture and sale of heart-lung machines. The order permits the acquisition and requires the divestiture of COBE's heart-lung machine business to Baxter Healthcare Corporation

Medtronic agreed to divest Avecor Cardiovascular, Inc.'s non-occlusive arterial pump assets to settle antitrust concerns that the acquisition would lessen competition for the research, development, manufacture and sale of the pumps in the United States. The order requires Medtronic to provide assistance to the buyer of the Avecor Pump assets to enable the buyer to obtain FDA approval to manufacture and market the Avecor pumps an reservoirs.

A final consent order settles allegations stemming from Medtronic's proposed acquisition of Physio-Control International Corporation's automatic external defibrillator business. According to the complaint, Medtronic, through its controlling interest in SurVivaLink Corporation, a direct competitor of Physio-Control, would control both companies as a result of the acquisition and thereby increase the likelihood of coordinated interaction which could result in increased prices and reduce innovation in the market. The consent order requires Medtronic to become a passive investor in SurVivaLink and reduce many of its present and future business contacts with the firm.

Mediq abandoned its proposed acquisition of Universal Hospital Services after the Commission filed a complaint and motion for a preliminary injunction to block the merger of the nation's two largest firms engaged in the rental to hospitals of movable medical equipment, such as respiratory, infusion and monitoring devices. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleged that the merger would create a monopoly for movable medical equipment rental in many major metropolitan areas across the nation.