Ethicon wins interim judgment against Illinois suture importer

Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon unit has been awarded a temporary restraining order against an Illinois company it accuses of importing and selling counterfeits of its surgical products.

The judgment in an Illinois district court is against Advanced Inventory Management (AIM), a Mokena-based company which runs a website called esutures.com, according to the company’s listing on the Dun & Bradstreet database.

esutures.com stocks medical devices from Ethicon as well as other companies including Covidien, Arthrex, Bard, Medtronic, and Stryker. It offers to buy surplus inventory from other suppliers including “in-date, short dated and expired products in full selling units, open boxes and even loose, individual items.”

Ethicon’s lawsuit accuses AIM of having imported and sold surgical supplies – including sutures – that falsely bear the Ethicon trademark and were bacterially contaminated and defective. A quick search on the esutures.com website today revealed no Ethicon products available for sale.