Go Go Biosensors
Netherlands Court Rules in Biosensors’ Favor; Declines Injunction Request By Angiotech and Boston Scientific
Singapore, 30 January 2006 – Biosensors International Group, Ltd. (Bloomberg: BIG
SP) today announced that it has successfully defended against legal claims and
defeated a request for an injunction request brought against it in the court in The Hague
by Vancouver, BC-based Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc and Boston Scientific. The
result of the court’s decision to deny the claims and injunction allows Biosensors to
continue the production of its Axxionâ„¢ drug eluting stent (“DESâ€) in the Netherlands with
distribution throughout Europe and other parts of the world where regulatory approval for
the device has been secured.
The legal action, commenced on December 9, 2005 in The Netherlands, claimed that
the AxxionTM stent infringes on European patent No. 0706376 (the “European Patentâ€)
which is jointly owned by Angiotech and the University of British Columbia. Boston
Scientific is the exclusive licensee of the European Patent for cardiovascular medicine,
which encompasses, among other things, claims describing a stent that uses a
composition of Paclitaxel and a polymeric coating as a drug carrier. The judge ruled that
Biosensors Axxionâ„¢ DES does not infringe the European Patent.
Yoh-Chie Lu, Chairman and CEO of Biosensors said, “We are obviously very pleased
with the Court’s decision in this matter as the decision of the Dutch court enables us to
continue to sell the Axxionâ„¢ DES and to pursue our business model. The introduction
and roll out of AxxionTM in Europe has been an important step for Biosensors as it has
allowed us to build our sales and marketing infrastructure, initiate market share and
develop the necessary systems for the eventual launch of our flagship BioMatrixâ„¢ DES.
BioMatrixTM features a fully biodegradable polymer and our own proprietary drug, and we
plan for it to drive our growth in the coming years.â€
Mr. Lu further noted that the legal action only involved its Axxionâ„¢ product and does not
relate to BioMatrixâ„¢, which is expected to receive CE Mark approval in the first half of
2006.
