J&J wins injunction against device maker it accuses of counterfeiting

Johnson & Johnson has been awarded another injunction against an Illinois-based company it claims has been selling counterfeit and expired Ethicon surgical devices.

Advanced Inventory Management Inc (AIM) has been barred from using Ethicon’s trademarks or claiming association with Ethicon by US District Judge Robert Dow Jr in a Chicago court.

Dow took the decision after concluding that it was likely that the J&J unit would be successful in its lawsuit as AIM had failed to provide a compelling rebuttal of the evidence. Ethicon won a temporary restraining order against AIM in June.

AIM) is a Mokena-based company which runs a website called esutures.com that stocks medical devices from Ethicon as well as other companies including Covidien, Arthrex, Bard, Medtronic, and Stryker.

eSutures.com 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.” It insists that Ethicon’s lawsuit is without merit.

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. The company is also under criminal investigation by the FDA, according to a Reuters report.

Prior reports have suggested that the allegedly counterfeit surgical devices – which include  haemostats, surgical clips, and associated fixation devices – were made by M/S Medserve, a company based in Delhi, India.

M/S Medserve has previously been named as part of the supply chain for a counterfeit and contaminated surgical hernia mesh product sold by RAM Medical in a lawsuit brought by the US Department of Justice several years ago. In that case, RAM pleaded guilty to the charges and acknowledged that the mesh was fake.

Documents from the Ethicon court case claim that up to 6,000 counterfeit devices may have ended up being used in patients, putting them at risk of serious infections.

The lawsuit seeks $25m in punitive damages from each of the defendants named in the action, which names AIM and four executives at the company.