J&J again sues Abbott in bid to keep stent off U.S. market

In a bid to stop the introduction of a competing device, Johnson & Johnson's Cordis unit has sued Abbott Laboratories for the fourth time this year over a patent for drug-coated heart stents.
The suit claims that Abbott's Xience coated stent would infringe a patent for a way of using rapamycin or related medicines on the devices to prevent growth of scar tissue in arteries that have been cleared of fat. Rapamycin is used to coat Johnson & Johnson's Cypher stent. The Xience uses everolimus, which Johnson & Johnson says is a related drug.

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