Judge blocks Johnson & Johnson unit from alleged anti-competitive practices in catheter market

Judge rules against Johnson & Johnson: ©JHVE Photo - stock.adobe.com

A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction against Johnson & Johnson’s Biosense Webster medical device unit, barring the company from blocking hospitals’ access to lower-cost, FDA-regulated reprocessed cardiac catheters.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge James Selna in California follows a jury verdict that found Biosense Webster had engaged in unlawful, anti-competitive conduct and ordered it to pay $147 million in damages to Innovative Health LLC. The damages automatically tripled under federal antitrust law, raising the total to $442 million.

The injunction, announced Thursday by the Association of Medical Device Reprocessors (AMDR), prevents Biosense Webster from tying clinical support for its cardiac mapping machines to the purchase of its own compatible devices, discriminating against hospitals that use reprocessed catheters, or installing so-called “kill switches” designed to disable devices that had been reprocessed by another company. The order also prohibits the company from hoarding used catheters that it does not reprocess to keep them out of the hands of competitors.

The restrictions will remain in place for five years, though the court retained the right to adjust the duration depending on market conditions.

“Hospitals and patients have long paid the price for BSW’s anticompetitive behavior,” Daniel J. Vukelich, president and CEO of AMDR, said in a statement. “This ruling reaffirms that dominant device manufacturers cannot abuse their market power to prevent hospitals from delivering the best possible care at the lowest possible price to the most patients in need at the least cost to the environment.”

AMDR, which represents the medical device reprocessing industry, called the decision a victory for hospitals, patients and environmentally sustainable health care practices.