Johnson & Johnson subsidiary licenses obesity-related patents from Cyberonics

Cyberonics on Tuesday entered into an agreement with Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, granting exclusive rights to Cyberonics’ patents and patent applications pertaining to vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) for the treatment of obesity and two related co-morbidities, diabetes and hypertension, in overweight patients.

Ethicon has agreed to pay Cyberonics a signing fee of $9.5 million and royalties on commercial sales of products covered by the subject patents, the Houston-based Cyberonics said.

Dan Moore, president and CEO of Cyberonics, said, that licensing out its “obesity-related patents permits us to obtain value from these assets while we continue to focus on our other strategic objectives—achieving positive cash flow and profitability, growing our core epilepsy business, and appropriately developing our treatment-resistant depression business.”

Around the web

Richard Heller III, MD, RSNA board member and senior VP of policy at Radiology Partners, offers an overview of policies in Congress that are directly impacting imaging.
 

The two companies aim to improve patient access to high-quality MRI scans by combining their artificial intelligence capabilities.

Positron, a New York-based nuclear imaging company, will now provide Upbeat Cardiology Solutions with advanced PET/CT systems and services.