A federal jury has awarded $147 million to Innovative Health, siding with the Scottsdale, Arizona-based reprocessor in an antitrust lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson’s Biosense Webster unit.

The verdict, reached Friday in Santa Ana, California, found the medical device manufacturer violated federal and state competition laws by withholding clinical support from hospitals that used reprocessed catheters.

The lawsuit centered on Biosense Webster’s alleged efforts to suppress competition from FDA-regulated, reprocessed “single-use” devices (SUDs), which are marketed by companies like Innovative Health as lower-cost, environmentally preferable alternatives to new devices.
“For too long, Johnson & Johnson has used tying arrangements and other tactics to interfere with fair competition from lower cost, FDA regulated, reprocessed ‘single-use’ devices,” said Daniel J. Vukelich, president and CEO of the Association of Medical Device Reprocessors (AMDR), in a statement. “We hope this jury’s message will be heard loud and clear: hospitals want to reduce costs and greenhouse gas emissions by using more reprocessed SUDs without fear of retribution by their original equipment manufacturers.”

The ruling is being hailed by AMDR as a potential turning point in a long-standing conflict between OEMs and the reprocessing industry. AMDR has for years alleged that certain OEMs use aggressive tactics to prevent hospitals from adopting reprocessed devices, including threats to void warranties, interference with hospital property, and software updates that disable reprocessed devices.

Innovative originally filed its lawsuit in 2022, arguing that Biosense’s policy unfairly restricted competition and violated both the Sherman Act and California’s Cartwright Act that prohibit market monopolization. Initially dismissed in 2022, the case was later revived by the Ninth Circuit in 2023, paving the way for a jury trial.

AMDR is now urging hospitals to implement policies to monitor and challenge anti-reprocessing behaviors, and says it is evaluating further legal options to curb what it characterizes as unlawful market manipulation.

Biosense Webster, part of the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson, has not publicly commented on the verdict.

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