S&N vows to fight on after High Court setback

A judge at the High Court in London ruled that variants of S&N's negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) devices infringe two patents held by US rival KCI.

The device, which is made mainly in the US, is a key driver of sales for the S&N's Hull-based Advanced Wound Management division. It uses suction to treat hard-to-heal wounds.

S&N started selling the products in the UK in early 2008, and the market here is estimated at around $50m to $60m. Negative pressure is a rapidly-growing $1.5bn global market.

"We are very mindful of intellectual property," said Robin Carlstein, senior vice president of Advanced Wound Devices at S&N. "We feel very strongly that this particular offer does not infringe any valid patents in the UK. This is step one of the fight with this particular patent."

Mr Carlstein said S&N will appeal the decision.

The court is expected to make a decision at the end of July over whether S&N should stop selling the two wound-care products in the UK and whether a cut of profits should be paid to KCI.

"These patents, and many others owned by KCI, prevent others from duplicating our industry-leading VAC Therapy System," said KCI president and chief executive Catherine Burzik.

Charles Stanley analyst Jeremy Batstone-Carr said: "Although negative for sentiment the decision has only a limited impact on group sales. NPWT achieved sales of just $32m in 2009 of which about 50 per cent were derived from the US.

"The UK is S&N's third largest market for the product with sales estimated at around $5m. Expect further litigation in Germany soon."