Scion Cardio-Vascular Inc, a Miami based medical device design and manufacturing company, filed a six-count complaint in Federal court against Illinois-based Abbott Laboratories. The complaint alleges that in January 2002, Abbott Laboratories and Scion entered into a confidentiality agreement under which Scion provided information to Abbott about a Scion product called the "Clo-Sur P.A.D." Scion developed the Clo-Sur P.A.D. to close puncture sites resulting from minimally invasive cardiovascular and radiologic procedures, including cardiac catheterization. Historically, patients were forced to undergo time-consuming and sometimes invasive procedures to close the puncture site left after catheterization. The Clo-Sur P.A.D., which has proven to be a tremendous success, accelerates coagulation and reduces the time and effort required to close the puncture site to under ten minutes.
According to the complaint, Abbott was considering making an equity investment in Scion and contracting to distribute the P.A.D. (an acronym created by Scion for "pressure applied dressing"). Instead, the complaint alleges that Abbott, after being provided with information about the product and its marketing, abandoned a proposed arrangement with Scion and, using information obtained from Scion, is bringing to market a competing pad.
The complaint states claims for fraud, breach of the confidentiality agreement, and trademark and copyright violations. The case has been assigned to Judge Paul Huck.