Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - Friday, October 25, 1996.
Judge Wilfred P. Diana on Thursday denied the New Brunswick-based company's appeal of the arbitrator's July decision to award Elliott J. Millenson the assets to the home test kit.
J&J spokesman Jeff Leebaw declined to say whether the company would appeal.
Millenson and his wife, Wendy Strongin, developed a home test in the late 1980s to detect the virus that causes AIDS.
Millenson became chief executive officer of Direct Access Diagnostics of Bridgewater, the J&J unit that makes the "Confide" kits, after selling his company to J&J in 1993. Confide was the first of two home HIV tests approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Millenson was fired in 1995 over what the company called an improper political donation, but arbitrator John J. Gibbons ruled July 25 that action was improper.
Gibbons ruled that J&J must give Millenson $1.7 million in back pay and bonuses, a 2.5 percent royalty for all the kits sold and all the assets to the kits. His decision also barred J&J from entering the home test market for two years.
Diana rejected J&J's arguments that Gibbons' decision was punitive and that he overstepped his authority.
Millenson also won a decision last month from another arbitrator, who awarded him $500,000 for test kit documents J&J submitted to French regulatory officials.
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