Monday, January 17, 2011

The Season is Young, and There Already is Dissension on the Louisville 5

Less than a month ago TSB posted about the Louisville 5, a dream of a spine team.  Breaking news has surfaced that there already is dissension on the team.  Could this be a job for Rick Pitino,  or is this better suited for John Calipari based on his reputation for dealing with squeaky clean programs.  It seems like one of the teammates is crying foul, while two other teammates are contending its their ball and their not sharing it with anyone.

On January 17th, 2011, it was reported in the Courier-Journal that some members of the Louisville 5 Dream Team were embroiled in a battle over $60 million in future royalty payments from the Evil Empire, aka, Medtronic.  Dr. John R. Johnson, you could call me ray, you can call me jay, but don't call me Johnnie, co-director of the Norton Leatherman Spine Center says in a lawsuit that two other surgeons have reneged on a decade old pact to equally split Medtronic royalty payments for helping develop spinal implants.

Dr. Steven Glassman and John R. Dimar, II, who also play and practice at the Center signed their own deal with Medtronic in 2006 and have every intention of keeping their royalties all to themselves.  Dr. Johnson on the other hand claims that their actions violate a 2001 agreement that would allow five surgeons to equally share rights in their inventions for Medtronic.  The breach of contract suit pertains to Drs. Glassman's and Dimar's work on the Solera System.  Medtronic should have called it the Solar System and marketed it as being out of this world.  So why is Dr. Johnson suing?  Because the potential estimated payout could be for $60 million in royalties over the next five to six years.  Dr. Puno and Dr. Campbell better known as bench warmers in the suit, have taken opposing sides against their teammates.  Dr. Puno sides with Dr. Johnson, while Dr. Campbell has sides with Glassman's and Dimar's position.

In addition to the claims made by Dr. Johnson, it seems that loyalty is not highly regarded when it comes down to the Benjamins.  Dr. Johnson's attorney was quoted as saying that after training in France 30 years ago with Cotrel-Dubousset, Dr. Johnson brought in Glassman and Dimar's into the practice to continue the development of these products for the benefit of patients.  If so, what does this have to do with Solera if that was a separate deal?

The interesting aspect of the suit is that both parties have petitioned the court to keep their business and financial information a secret from the public domain.  Seems like there is some inbred fighting going on.  Maybe "da boyz" can go down to Jack Fry's and settle this over a plate of Poulet Rouge Fermier and some excellent aged Knob Creek of Makers Mark 46 Kentucky Bourbon, because by time the attorneys get through with both parties they'll be eating at the Hard Rock instead.  TSB wants to know what's in the water down in L'ville?

19 comments:

  1. Greed: An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.

    The compliance officer at Medtronic is probably having a coronary with the outing of the Louisville 5 and now this.

    Someone please tell me what intellectual property any surgeon could have contributed to the Solera system. It uses the same design as Legacy, but on a 4.75 rod. There is nothing new or Novel about it,, other than the RFID tags that most people can't even use and I can assure you that was not the result of surgeon IP. To think these 5 hacks would get up to $60M, and who knows how many other surgeons have a piece of the IP royalty for a product that is basically new packaging on old technology is a total scam.

    Royalty agreements are the new consulting agreements. They can pay more (to big cutters like these guys), the rules are more nebulous than consulting agreements and it doesn't require the doc to do anything in the way of documentation of hours or services provided. Obviously, they don't even have to prove they contributed any IP to the design. Then they can just keep paying the doc without the doc doing a thing.

    Dimar has his name on 1 patent in the USPTO, some awful looking perpendicular rod assembly that has never, and will never, be used in a human. Puno has his name on quite a few products from Cross and Medtronic (via Warsaw Orthopedics). You really have to wonder if Puno came to these companies with a new idea, or if the companies came to him and said, "work with us on this idea and we will give you royalty points". One clue to the answer is the assignee name on the patents ( the entity that owns the patent). The companies own the patents. If these ideas were all his, he would have patented them himself and he would own the patent (like Michelson).

    Either way, it will interesting to see how they end up splitting all the greenbacks and how much bad press they will stir up in the process for themselves and for Big Blue.

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  2. god, i wish i would have went to med school so i could get an awesome royalty or consulting agreement... wtf was i smoking "back in the day"

    the dorks rule the world, but O'Doyle rules!

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  3. 7:02- Self Righteousness:
    confident of one's own righteousness, esp. when smugly moralistic and intolerant of the opinions and behavior of others.

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  4. saw an interesting show last night about how when mice have eaten all the food they can find, they turn to cannibalism...

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  5. 5:51 I am more intolerant of the behavior of Medtronic than the surgeons. I would probably take that deal if it was offered. The problem is, I don't do 1000 lumbar fusion a year so it won't get offered to me. And yes, I am fairly confident in my rightousness, particularly as it pertains to this issue.

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  6. so what day is best to catch all 5 in clinic for my office lunch?

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  7. Solera! Ha ha ha! How in the world could anyone be paid royalties on a line extension? Ha, ha, ha! MDT is circling the drain.

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  8. What's so great about Solera, wasn't XIA 4.5 out years earlier and still Has a slower profile?

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  9. Entitlement is bringing this country to his knees and our industry is on the bleeding edge. Surgeons are sucking money as fast as they can get it and the Industry is happy to oblige. To blame one side or the othern is folly, although it's done all the time here. Smugly makes my point for me. Blames the company but would suck off of it's tit if offered. Pathetic.

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  10. Anonymous,

    How can you say that?

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  11. Smugly here,

    I think I was clearly blaming both sides. The surgeons who cut on every soul that walks in the door and methods used by the company to secure their business. And my hypothetical acceptance of the deal was based, sarcasticaly, on my inability to generate 1000 fusion procedures per year.

    Lighten up Frances

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  12. Has anyone in this group heard of physical therapy (ie. exercize)? Or has the greed-based surgery biased spine research affected everyone's ability to think clearly and act properly?

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  13. $60 Mil in kickbacks, funneled through a "charitable foundation"llc...tells me PT was never an option! Thinking clearly meant acting improperly. Why did the judge allow these doctors to keep their financial info private? If they can be so brazen as to squabble over $60 mil from a Medtronics subsidiary, they must be confidant about the outcome of the charges. Where is the IRS? DoJ? For crying out loud-- the licensing board-- these guys are still on staff at the medical school!

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  14. Is that Dawna from Bawston?
    How yu doin'?

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  15. Love watching these chickens coming home to roost after a decade of highly questionable practices.When will Brad & Toby be called in for some interviews to spread some light on these "consultant" surgeons. Not to mention some other docs in town that have also abused a lack of business & legal oversight in the name of riches. The DOJ should just set up shop here for the next few years.

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  16. I made the mistake of letting Dimar work on my back three times. My spine is a mess, put simply and there aren't many who would touch me. Sadly nobody will touch it now. The last three surgeries were a posterior entry and Fuse was used. I now have a tremendous amount of overgrowth and he dumped me as a patient before my last post op follow up appt. Had I known at the time how deeply inbedded the practice is with Medtronics, I never would have used them.

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  17. Jury ruled in JJ's favor 10-6-12. Sure this will be interesting.

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