MEDINOL, BOSTON SCIENTIFIC TRIAL DATE SET

A lawsuit between an Israeli stent maker and a U.S. biotech giant is slated to go to trial June 20, with as much as $1.5 billion at stake.

A report in The Jerusalem Post said that Judge Alvin Hellerstein set the date for the trial between Jerusalem-based Medinol and Boston Scientific, a $35 billion publicly traded company. At issue are billions of dollars in revenue from the sale of Boston Scientific stents, whose design Medinol says was stolen from a stent Medinol manufactured for the U.S. company until a partnership between the two fell apart in early 2002.

Hellerstein indicated that the trial would address how much Boston Scientific needed to pay Medinol in royalties for the sale of the Express line of stents. The announcement of a trial date may help steer the parties toward settling the case out of court. Urging the parties to come up with a solution on their own, Hellerstein ordered their attorneys to reconvene in two weeks to discuss appointing a mediator in the case.