Angioline company will sue out a refutal from V.F. Vekselberg

ANGIOLINE Company brought a suit against V.F. Vekselberg, Chairman of the Council of Directors of RENOVA Group of Companies for the goodwill protection. The trial was triggered by V.F. Vekselberg’s interview to the Russia 24 TV Channel (which is a member of the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Holding, VGTRK) on October 25, 2016, namely: Vekselberg – How the High-Tech Business Works. During the interview, V.F. Vekselberg declared that “with the demand for more than a hundred thousand devices, hardly more than a thousand coronary stents are produced in Russia by a semi-cottage industry, while the rest is imported”. This allegation contradicts the reality and badly damages business reputation of ANGIOLINE Ltd and other Russian manufacturers of coronary stents, and is a deliberate infringement of the prohibition on dissemination of knowingly false statements as to the product quality of other market participants, regulated by the Federal Law No. 141 On Protection of Competition. Within the suit, the ANGIOLINE Company demands to refute V.F. Vekselberg’s allegation during the interview through the same sources it had been disseminated. 
Currently, there are three big domestic coronary stent manufacturers in the market of Russia. ANGIOLINE Ltd alone manufactured and sold about 40 000 stents in 2016. Since 2010, 100 000 successful surgeries have been performed using ANGIOLINE’s products. The manufacturing technique of the ANGIOLINE Company meets the European quality standards. All products have the appropriate international Certificates. The Quality Management System has been implemented at production sites as per ISO 9001:2008, ISO 13485:2003 and EN 13485:2012, as well as the GOST (State Standard) ISO 9001:2011 and GOST (State Standard) ISO 13485:2011. The products and manufacturing facilities of two other domestic coronary stent manufacturers, NanoMed, LLC (Penza) and Stentonik, CJSC (Tula), have all required Certificates of Conformity to the International Quality Standards, as well. 
“We have every reason to suggest that V.F. Vekselberg’s words are aimed at misleading the state authorities into thinking that there is no technological base for the production of coronary stents in Russia,” said Andrey Kudryashov, Director General of ANGIOLINE LLC, “Their goal is to receive additional preferences for the Stentex project, which is under development in cooperation with American Company called Medtronic. Thus, the competitive environment disruption occurs. When manufacture under the project begins, Stentex will become our immediate competitor and it needs an additional support from the state”. 
On November 17, 2017, we directed at V.F. Vekselberg’s address a pretrial claim containing detailed information as to the production volume and conformity of the manufacturing technique and products to the quality standards available, both Russian and international. Requirements included into the pretrial claim were similar to those presented in the suit. No response to the claim was received. The preliminary hearing is scheduled on March 3, 2017.