WASHINGTON (AP) — Boston Scientific Corp. said Friday it will pay $50 million to settle a yearslong dispute with an inventor who claimed the company’s drug coated stent infringed on his patent. In July a federal judge rejected a request by Boston Scientific for a new trial against Dr. Bruce Saffran that ended with a $501 million judgment in his favor. The company had argued that Saffran’s patent differed in design from its Taxus stent. Boston Scientific said the agreement announced this week settles all litigation with the inventor and radiologist. The Natick, Mass.-based company will record the $50 million charge in the first quarter, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Saffran first sued Boston Scientific in 2005, claiming that its stents infringed on his 1997 patent covering technology to deliver injury-healing medication inside the body. Heart stents are mesh-wire tubes that prop open coronary arteries after surgery to remove fatty plaque. Boston Scientific’s drug-coated Taxus stent has grown into one of the company’s best-selling products. The drug coating is designed to prevent scar tissue from growing through the mesh and reclogging the artery.
