Retractable Technologies, Inc. (NYSE MKT: RVP) (“RTI”) announced today
that on January 15, 2015 Judge Leonard Davis of the United States
District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued the Court’s
FINAL JUDGMENT regarding RTI’s suit against Becton, Dickinson and Co.
(“BD”).
The Court issued the following Final Judgment:
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BD attempted to monopolize the safety syringe market.
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BD committed false advertising under the Lanham Act.
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RTI recovers from BD $340,524,042.00.
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RTI recovers from BD its attorneys’ fees in the amount of
$11,722,823.20.
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RTI is further awarded pre-judgment interest, post-judgment interest,
and costs.
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The Court GRANTS injunctive relief consistent with its prior orders.
In its prior order on November 10, 2014, the Court ordered the following
injunctive relief:
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BD shall not advertise or otherwise state in its marketing activities
that BD safety syringes have the “World’s Sharpest Needle” or any
similar assertion of superiority in sharpness, or reduced patient pain
as a result of needle sharpness, for a period of five years from this
Order.
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BD shall notify all customers who purchased BD syringe products from
July 2, 2004 to the date of this Order that BD wrongfully claimed that
its syringe needles were sharper than competitors’, including RTI’s,
and that its statement that it had “data on file” proving the
sharpness claim was false and misleading.
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BD shall notify all employees, customers, distributors, Group
Purchasing Organizations, and government agencies that: (1) the dead
space of the VanishPoint syringe has been within the ISO standard of
0.07 mL dating back to at least July of 2004; (2) that BD overstated
the dead space of the VanishPoint syringe to represent that it was
higher than BD’s conventional syringe, Safety-Lok, SafetyGlide, and
Eclipse products when it was actually less than all of those products;
and (3) that BD’s statement that data on file was false and
misleading. In addition, BD shall post the notice on its web site
where information regarding syringes is presented and shall maintain
such notice on its web site for a period of 3 years.
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BD shall not advertise or otherwise allege in its marketing activities
that its syringe products save medication as compared to Retractable’s
VanishPoint syringes for a period of 3 years. BD shall destroy all
marketing, training, and sales materials that currently include such
allegations.
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BD shall notify all of its employees, customers, distributors, Group
Purchasing Organizations, and government agencies that its web site,
cost calculator, printed materials and oral representations alleging
that BD’s syringes save medication as compared to Retractable’s
VanishPoint syringe were based on false and inaccurate measurements of
Retractable’s VanishPoint. In addition, BD shall post this notice on
its web site where information regarding syringes is presented and
shall maintain such notice on its web site for a period of 3 years.
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BD shall implement a comprehensive training program for its employees
and distributors that specifically instructs employees and
distributors not to use old marketing materials and not to make false
representations regarding Retractable’s VanishPoint syringes.
Subsequently on January 14, 2015, the Court entered an Order stating
that it “originally gave BD 66 days to comply with the injunction.
However…the Court extended the deadline an additional 30 days…Pending
the appeal of this matter in its entirety, BD is not required to send
the mandatory disclosure to end users who have purchased syringes from
July 2, 2004 to the date of the Injunction Order, November 10, 2014.
This includes entities such as hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare
providers that do not resell the syringes in the ordinary course of
business. However, BD SHALL send the mandatory disclosures to its
employees, customers, distributors, and Group Purchasing Organizations.
This includes any entity who in the normal course of business resells
the syringe, or any entity whose normal course of business is to
publicly disseminate BD advertisements. BD SHALL comply with the
injunction in all other regards no later than February 14, 2015.”
Retractable manufactures and markets VanishPoint® and Patient
Safe® safety medical products. The VanishPoint syringe,
blood collection, and IV catheter products are designed to prevent
needlestick injuries and product reuse by retracting the needle directly
from the patient, effectively reducing exposure to the contaminated
needle. Patient Safe syringes are uniquely designed to reduce the risk
of bloodstream infections resulting from catheter hub contamination.
Retractable's products are distributed by various specialty and general
line distributors.
For more information on Retractable, visit our website at www.vanishpoint.com.
Forward-looking statements in this press release are made pursuant to
the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995 and reflect our current views with respect to future events.
We believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking
statements are accurate. However, we cannot assure you that such
expectations will materialize. Our actual future performance could
differ materially from such statements.
Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but
are not limited to: our ability to maintain liquidity; our maintenance
of patent protection; the impact of current litigation; our ability to
maintain favorable third party manufacturing and supplier arrangements
and relationships; our ability to quickly increase capacity in response
to an increase in demand; our ability to access the market; our ability
to maintain or lower production costs; our ability to continue to
finance research and development as well as operations and expansion of
production; the continuing interest of larger market players,
specifically BD, in providing devices to the safety market; and other
risks and uncertainties that are detailed from time to time in
Retractable's periodic reports filed with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission.
Copyright Business Wire 2015