Originally Published MX January/February 2004

BUSINESS NEWS

Axis-Shield ASA (Oslo, Norway), an Anglo-Norwegian in vitro diagnostics company, filed a lawsuit in late October against Carolina Liquid Chemistries Corp. (Brea, CA) and Catch Inc. (Seattle) for infringement of its homocysteine assay patents.

In late October, FDA ordered Johnson & Johnson (J&J; New Brunswick, NJ) to study 2000 patients who have been implanted with the drug-eluting Cypher stent, made by J&J subsidiary Cordis Corp. (Miami Lakes, FL). The agency said it had received more than 290 reports of blood clots in Cypher recipients since the device's launch in April 2003. FDA will require Cordis to continue evaluating patients from ongoing clinical trials to determine the long-term safety and effectiveness of the product. Cordis expects new data to be available by the end of January.