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Edwards Lifesciences Wins Court Victory in Patent Dispute Over Heart Valve Repair Device
- Client News
- June 6, 2019
Practices
Paul, Weiss won a significant victory for Edwards Lifesciences in patent litigation brought by Abbott Laboratories concerning Edwards’ PASCAL, an important new medical device recently approved for use in Europe to treat a common form of often-fatal heart disease called mitral regurgitation. In its lawsuit, Abbott asserted that PASCAL infringed several patents, and sought both a temporary restraining order intended to halt PASCAL’s launch and a preliminary injunction intended to keep PASCAL off the market until trial. Abbott argued that PASCAL was not significantly different than Abbott’s MitraClip device, and that Abbott would be irreparably harmed if forced to compete against it.
In March 2019, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware denied Abbott’s request for a temporary restraining order, and on June 6, it also denied Abbott’s motion for a preliminary injunction. In its opinion, the court held that an injunction was not warranted because Abbott had failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits; that it was likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of an injunction; and that the public interest weighed in favor of granting the injunction. In so holding, the court recognized the ways in which PASCAL was a different product with different features that could be used with patients suffering from this grave and under-treated disease. As a result of this decision, physicians in Europe can continue to choose PASCAL to treat patients in need. In the United States, PASCAL remains in clinical trials.
The Paul, Weiss team included, among others, litigation partner Catherine Nyarady and counsel Kripa Raman and Kira Davis.