Dive Brief:
- The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Friday issued a preliminary injunction preventing EOFlow from selling any product developed using trade secrets from Insulet, according to court documents.
- Insulet sued EOFlow, the maker of a wearable insulin patch pump that is on track to become part of Medtronic, in August. It accused EOFlow of violating three patents for its Omnipod patch pump.
- The legal setback for EOFlow comes as Medtronic is preparing to pay $738 million to buy the company for its EOPatch system.
Dive Insight:
Wearable insulin patches are more compact than traditional pumps, which deliver insulin through a tube connected to a device that must be attached to a belt or carried.
Medtronic and other companies, including Tandem Diabetes Care and Embecta, are chasing Insulet’s lead in the insulin patch pump market.
During an investor presentation in September, Medtronic reaffirmed that it is on track to complete the EOFlow acquisition by the end of this year.
“The progress is worth monitoring as it puts (Medtronic’s) EOFlow deal value and/or its future commercialization at risk,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Shagun Singh said in a note to clients Friday.
A Medtronic spokesperson, in an emailed statement, said the company was reviewing the court’s ruling. Medtronic is not a party to the case, the spokesperson said.
Representatives for EOFlow did not respond to a request for comment on the injunction by press time.
When it announced its plan to buy EOFlow in May, Medtronic said it would work quickly to integrate the EOPatch device with its next-generation sensor and the meal detection algorithm offered in its MiniMed 780G system.
EOFlow’s technology is authorized in Europe, South Korea, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates but is not yet available in the U.S. The tubeless, wearable and disposable device is paired with a smartphone application that allows users to control the patch from their phone.
Friday’s preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Court Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor restrains EOFlow from manufacturing, marketing or selling any product designed using Insulet trade secrets pending a trial on the merits of the case. The order granting the injunction defined trade secrets as confidential materials of Insulet’s that were removed from the company by Luis Malave, Steven DiIanni, Ian Welsford or Robert Strand, or any other present or former employee, or that were derived from that information. The four people named in the order are former Insulet employees.
Malave, who is president of EOFlow, Welsford, who is the company’s chief technology officer, and Dilanni are listed as defendants in the original complaint.