Atrium Wins Unanimous Verdict in Genzyme Patent Suit

Hudson, NH – December 4, 2002  -  Atrium Medical Corporation announced today that on November 26, 2002, a federal court jury in Wilmington, Delaware, unanimously vindicated Atrium Medical Corporation, of Hudson, NH, in the patent infringement suit brought against it by Genzyme Corporation and Genzyme Biosurgery (formerly Genzyme Surgical Products Corporation).  After a nearly two-week trial, the unanimous jury verdict, rendered within hours, found that Atrium did not infringe any of the five patents Genzyme had asserted against it.  The jury also found that all five of the Genzyme patents are invalid.

Genzyme brought suit against Atrium in November 2000, without any prior notice, seeking to bar Atrium’s manufacture and sale of its Oasis^® and Express^™ chest drains, introduced in 1996 and 2000, respectively.  Atrium told the jury that it believed the suit was in response to its success in the marketplace while Genzyme continued to experience declining sales and market share, and was an effort by Genzyme to eliminate Atrium as a major competitor.  Atrium spent two years defending itself against the infringement claims by Genzyme that the jury determined to be completely unfounded.

At trial, Genzyme acknowledged that it had lost substantial market share due to strong competition from Atrium.  In its opening statement, Genzyme accused Atrium of being the “dark side” of American business.  Atrium’s lawyers countered that Atrium, in fact, represents the “bright side” of competition in America , as a company that has continually invested millions of dollars in research, design and innovation, which contributed to the company’s commercial success in chest drainage.

"Atrium now looks forward to continuing its mission of providing unparalleled customer service and improved patient care with its products used for emergency chest trauma, critical care, and open heart surgery,” said Steve Herweck , Atrium’s President and Chief Executive Officer.  “We would also like to thank our loyal customers, national account partners, and our terrific team of employees for remaining steadfast in their support of Atrium during this two year period.  Today, we are back to business building the very best products that science, manufacturing know-how, and our hard working employees have to offer in this specialized field of healthcare.”

Atrium Moves Forward With Plans To Invalidate 

Genzyme Patents-In-Suit  

Hudson, NH, July 26, 2002  –  Atrium Medical Corporation announced today that it will continue to aggressively defend the patent infringement suit brought by Genzyme at the trial currently scheduled for November 2002, and Atrium will seek to invalidate Genzyme’s patents-in-suit.  On July 19, in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, Magistrate Judge Mary Pat Thynge issued an order interpreting the patent claims at issue and decided that factual questions precluded the court from entering summary judgment for Atrium at this time.  The entry of summary judgment would have meant an early victory for Atrium without a trial.  Atrium, and its litigation counsel Hale and Dorr, are prepared to move forward with the trial in November.  Regarding claim construction, Judge Thynge adopted the specific claim construction proposed by Atrium in several instances.  To the extent the Court adopted the broader claim interpretations, proposed by Genzyme, Atrium believes those claims will likely be proven invalid at trial based on the prior art, not all of which was presented to the US Patent and Trademark Office during prosecution.  “Atrium continues to surpass Genzyme in the chest drain marketplace with its innovative technology, unmatched product quality, and superior clinical education and service,” said Steve Herweck, Atrium’s President and Chief Executive Officer.  “This is not the first time that the former Deknatel company, which was acquired by Genzyme in 1996, has resorted to the courts and the public media to try to stem its steadily declining market share of its fluid management products.  The last time this Genzyme company sued Atrium for alleged patent infringement in 1995, it also publicly asserted it would easily prevail against Atrium at trial.  In the U.S. District Court in Boston, however, the jury entered an overwhelming verdict in favor of Atrium.  We are looking forward to our day in court and are confident that the jury will vindicate Atrium once again.”

Consorta Agreement with Atrium Medical Corporation Delivers Savings and New Product Options to Membership

Rolling Meadows, IL, September 24, 2001 , – Consorta Catholic Resource Partners, a leading group purchasing and resource management company, today announced a sole-source agreement with Atrium Medical Corporation, Hudson, New Hampshire, a cardiovascular medical device manufacturer.  The agreement, which became effective on September 1, 2001, provides Consorta members with significant discounts on chest drainage collection devices and thoracic drainage catheters. 

Consorta’s shareholder health systems operate more than half of all Catholic hospitals in the United States, own many extended and alternate care sites and have affiliate relationships with other non-profit hospitals and alternate care facilities.  The Consorta membership encompasses more than 400 acute care hospitals, representing 54,600 beds, and more than 1,700 alternate care sites. 

“The agreement with Atrium couples innovative technology with exceptional value for our members,” said Robin Szarmach, clinical manager surgical services for Consorta.

Atrium Medical is the largest producer of chest drainage and thoracic catheter devices in the U.S.  The company provides field support for their products at nursing and surgical conferences and offers accredited advanced nursing educational programs in Thoracic Drainage and Patient Care.

The agreement gives Consorta members access to traditional technology along with new product innovations for the alternate care markets, according to Steve Herweck, president and CEO of Atrium Medical Corporation.  “We just celebrated our 20^th anniversary as a global healthcare company with an evolving cardiovascular focused portfolio, unmatched in innovation and field support,” said Herweck.  

Consorta’s agreement with Atrium reflects the mutual goals each organization offers by providing the best quality products supported by exceptional service and clinical education.  State-of-the-art thoracic drainage products and leading edge catheter technology give Atrium a strong position in emergency trauma care, open-heart surgery, as well as general thoracic surgical repair.  

The Consorta membership includes Catholic Charities USA and twelve shareholder organizations that own most of their facilities and are growing.  Consorta shareholders are Catholic-sponsored, faith-based or non-profit health systems who share fully in the organization’s bottom-line performance and receive significant discounts through scale purchasing economies.  For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.consorta.com.

Fact Sheet

For more information visit our web site at www.consorta.com or contact Sheila Reed, Director of Corporate Communications at 847-255-6990.

Consorta, Inc., based in suburban Chicago, is a leading healthcare resource management and group purchasing organization, whose shareholders are Catholic-sponsored, faith-based or non-profit health systems.  As a cooperative Consorta's shareholders and participants share fully in the organization's bottom-line performance, as well as receiving significant discounts through scale purchasing economies.

Consorta’s shareholder health care systems operate more than half of all Catholic hospitals in the United States, own many extended and alternate care sites and have affiliate relationships with other non-profit hospitals and alternate care facilities as well.  The Consorta membership encompasses over 400 acute care facilities, representing 54,600 beds, and more than 1700 alternate care sites.

Consorta, Inc. 

	Based in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.
	Annual purchasing volume exceeding $2.65 billion.
	Consorta offers a complete contract portfolio with programs supporting alternate care, cardiovascular, med/surg, laboratory, pharmacy, food service, facilities, imaging, dietary and capital equipment.  Targeted “group buy initiatives” provide significant savings opportunities for major patient care and diagnostic equipment purchases.

The Consorta membership includes Catholic Charities USA and the following shareholder organizations or systems who own most of their facilities and are growing.

Ancilla Systems, Hobart, IN

Ascension Health, St. Louis, MO

Catholic Health Initiatives, Denver, CO

Hospital Sisters Health System, Springfield, IL

Ministry Health Care, Milwaukee, WI

Provena Health, Frankfort, IL

Saint Clare’s Health Services, Denville, NJ

Sisters of St. Francis Health Services, Mishawaka, IN

St. John Health System, Tulsa, OK

Trinity Health, Novi, Michigan

Via Christi Health System, Wichita, KS

Wheaton Franciscan Services, Inc., Wheaton, IL

Consorta participants comprise

400+  acute care facilities representing 54,600 acute care beds, 

1150+  primary care sites,  

230+  extended care facilities, 

340+ “other” care delivery & retail sites.

Hudson - The call came at 5:15pm on Wednesday.  St. Vincent's Hospital, New York's ground zero for the treatment of victims of Tuesday's horrific attack, called Atrium Medical Corp. in Hudson.  It needed about 200 surgical chest drains immediately.

That set off a rapid chain of events within the company.  The 175 local employees were transformed into a team with one purpose - help those in need, now.

At 6:04pm the company's President and Chief Executive Officer, Steve Herweck, left the company's headquarters in Hudson with 180 chest drainage systems in his family's Chevy Suburban.

"Four hours and four minutes later we were at St. Vincent's," said Herweck, who was accompanied by his 19-year old son, Matthew, and the company's Product Manager, Jay Zimmerman.

Atrium is the world's leading manufacturer of the chest drains, which are used to keep fluids out of the lungs and to regulate blood loss during cardiovascular surgery.  The drains are used just once, but are vital to the survival of patients, Herweck said.

Atrium couldn't have got the surgical drains out the door without a great cooperative effort from the company's employees.  Herweck said, "Anyone could've driven.  The employees are the ones that made this happen."

Rachel Fenwick, the customer service representative who took the initial call from St. Vincent's started the effort.  Atrium employee Cindy Herweck quickly called their distributors in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but "it was clear that non of our distributors could get the drains to St. Vincent in time to meet their needs.  They had 180 thoracic surgeries in the next three days," Herweck said.

"With the assistance of Jay Zimmerman and Jeff McGill, calls were made to find out exactly what, how many and by when they needed our chest drain products," he added.  Since the drains are prescription products, a lot of paperwork needed to be filled out as well, Herweck said.  Employees in the distribution center quickly assembled the chest drains and loaded them in the Suburban and Herweck was off.

But the saga didn't end there.  "You can't just drive to St. Vincent's right now.  You need to get the necessary approvals first," Herweck said.

"It took four people calling for hours in order for us to get approval to enter the area.  We finally got approval just as we were entering the city.  We had to stop at three separate check points once we entered Manhattan.  The hospital's order supply team stayed late waiting for our arrival so that they could put the chest drains to use that evening," he added.

But Atrium wasn't done.  The company had sent an offer of help to all its customers shortly after Tuesday's attacks.  St. Vincent's was the first to respond, but Thursday morning they got another cry for help, this time from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

"All of the victims in the Pennsylvania crash did not survive, but most of the cardiac surgical supplies we sell are sent by airplane and all the airplanes are grounded, so they were running low," Herweck said.

Atrium employee Jorge Gonzales was heading down to Pennsylvania on Thursday where he will meet Atrium Eastern Regional Sales Manager, Jeff Harris, on the Pennsylvania Throughway.  The two will hand off another 180 chest drains for delivery to that hospital, Herweck said.

"This shows that we are more than just a business," Herweck said.  "It was really the spirit of my employees that carried this through.  They all wanted to do what they could to help the victims and their families."

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By Brad Leighton

Telegraph Staff