Johnson & Johnson must pay over $1 billion to former Auris Health investors for breaching a 2019 merger agreement by failing to provide resources for regulatory milestones, and fraudulently hindering the progress of Auris's robotic surgery systems.
Dive Brief:
A Delaware judge ruled Wednesday that Johnson & Johnson must pay Auris Health’s former investors more than $1 billion in damages after violating a 2019 merger agreement between the healthcare giant and surgical robotics firm.
J&J did not provide Auris with resources to accomplish regulatory milestones — tied to more than $1 billion in additional payments — for its iPlatform robotic surgery system, according to the ruling in the Delaware Court of Chancery. The judge also ruled that J&J fraudulently prevented Auris from hitting a milestone for its Monarch platform.
As a result, J&J owes former Auris shareholders about $1.01 billion in total damages. “We respectfully disagree with and intend to appeal the court’s decision, which read a ‘commercially reasonable efforts’ term to impose a commercially unreasonable obligation and result that was contrary to the factual record,” a J&J spokesperson said in an...
