Guidant and Cordis Sign Technology Agreement

Guidant Corp. (Indianapolis) and Cordis Corp. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson) have entered into a broad agreement covering various technologies and patents.

With the agreement, Guidant obtains an exclusive option from Impulse Dynamics N.V. to acquire emerging cardiovascular technology for the treatment of heart failure.

In addition, Guidant and Cordis will dismiss all current patent litigation between them and will resolve all remaining disputes in future arbitration proceedings.

The agreement also establishes Cordis as a non-exclusive U.S. distributor of rapid-exchange balloon dilatation catheters made by Guidant and provides both companies with access to certain radiation patents.

Edited by Ursula Jones