They thought it would be a compatible partnership. Boston Scientific, a medical device company, needed to get into the highly profitable stent business fast. And Medinol, a startup research and development concern, needed a way to market its new NIR flexible design stent. So in 1995 the two companies signed a ten-year agreement that Boston Scientific would distribute and market Medinol's stents. But the alliance quickly deteriorated. Before the parties would finally reach a court settlement in 2005, there would be layoffs and recalls, suits and countersuits, threats to cut off manufacturing, and the construction of a secret factory in Ireland. How did a business relationship that was created to provide life-saving technology to heart patients go so bad?
Published Date: 01/09/2006
Suggested Citation: Andrea Nagy and Sharon Oster, "Boston Scientific and Medinol," Yale SOM Case 06-012, September 1, 2006.
Keywords: Interorganizational alliance, Research