On January 13, 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed summary judgment in favor of Coherent’s client Vizient, Inc., the nation’s largest healthcare group purchasing organization (“GPO”), in Endure Indus., Inc. v. Vizient Inc., 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 832 (5th Cir., 2026).
The case stemmed from an antitrust lawsuit brought by Endure Industries, Inc., a supplier of disposable medical supplies. Endure alleged that Vizient foreclosed Endure from hospital markets after Vizient rejected its bid to supply medical tape through Vizient’s GPO contracting programs.
The Fifth Circuit upheld the district court’s October 9, 2024 decision granting summary judgment to Vizient, concluding that Endure failed to establish a legally sufficient definition of the relevant antitrust market, a required element of any antitrust claim. The Court agreed that Endure’s proposed markets improperly excluded reasonably interchangeable alternatives and failed to demonstrate customer “lock-in,” rendering the alleged markets legally deficient as a matter of law.
Coherent Senior Managing Director Dr. Robert Maness served as an expert in antitrust and health economics for Vizient, alongside a Coherent team including Brian Segers, Matt Gunden, Jack Kurila, Jenna Gonzales, and Jacob Pagel, who analyzed market definition and competitive dynamics in healthcare supply purchasing and GPO contracting.
In affirming summary judgment, the Fifth Circuit emphasized the importance of depicting markets that include all reasonably interchangeable substitutes defined fundamentally by cross-elasticity of demand which Endure failed to meet. The decision represents a significant appellate victory for Vizient and reinforces established antitrust principles governing market definition and competitive substitution.
Vizient was represented by attorneys from Haynes Boone’s Dallas office, including Ron Breaux, Benjamin Goodman, Bill Morrison, Andrew Guthrie, Ashley Koos, and Ben Breckler.