A federal judge has tripled damages to $442 million in an antitrust case against Johnson & Johnson’s medical device unit Biosense Webster, after a California jury previously found the company illegally restricted access to support services when using reprocessed catheters, Law 360 reported.
Judge James Selna of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on June 4 affirmed the jury’s $147 million verdict issued in May and increased the award under federal and California antitrust law.
The decision comes after a jury on May 16 found that Biosense Webster violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and California’s Cartwright Act by withholding clinical support from hospitals that chose to use reprocessed electrophysiology catheters made by Innovative Health rather than new catheters sold by J&J’s unit.
“This is a seismic result,” Daniel Vukelich, president and CEO of the Association of Medical Device Reprocessors, said in a June 5 news release. “The court not only affirmed what the jury found — that Johnson & Johnson illegally monopolized and tied the market to undermine reprocessed medical devices — but took the additional step of tripling the damages, as allowed under antitrust law.”
