ITEM 8.01. OTHER EVENTS.

On March 16, 2009, Bruce N. Saffran, M.D., Ph.D and Boston Scientific agreed to settle all outstanding litigation between the parties. In connection with the settlement, we expect to record a pre-tax charge to earnings of $50 million during the first quarter of 2009.

On December 16, 2005, Dr. Saffran filed a suit against us in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas alleging that certain of our coronary stent systems infringe a patent owned by Dr. Saffran. On February 11, 2008, a jury found that our TAXUS® Express® and TAXUS® Liberté® stent products infringe Dr. Saffran's patent and awarded damages of $431 million. The District Court also awarded Dr. Saffran $69 million in pre-judgement interest. On August 5, 2008, we filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. and a hearing before a panel of the Federal Circuit occurred on March 2, 2009. A joint motion to dismiss the appeal was filed on March 17, 2009. On February 21, 2008, Dr. Saffran filed a second complaint seeking damages for the continued sale of Taxus stent products. That case will also be dismissed.

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