JNJ v. ABT
This might hurt:
Abbott Loss to J&J Upheld in $1.7 Billion Patent Suit (Update1)
By William McQuillen
Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Abbott Laboratories failed to persuade a federal judge to throw out a record $1.67 billion verdict won by Johnson & Johnson’s Centocor unit in a suit over an arthritis drug patent.
U.S. District Judge T. John Ward in Marshall, Texas, upheld a June decision by a federal jury that Abbott owes New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J $504 million in royalties on the arthritis drug Humira for violating a Centocor patent.
Abbott must also pay $1.17 billion to J&J for lost profit on sales of its own arthritis medicines, Ward wrote in a ruling dated yesterday. It was the biggest patent verdict in U.S. history.
The drugmaker failed to prove that the inventors made false statements to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to obtain the patent, Ward said.
“Abbott hasn’t carried out its burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence” that the patent is unenforceable or invalid, the judge wrote.
Ward last month rejected Abbott’s request for a new trial or a reduced award. Abbott claimed the verdict was “clearly excessive.”
“We are disappointed in the court’s decision to deny our allegations of patent invalidity and unenforceability,” Adelle Infante, an Abbott spokeswoman, said today. “We remain confident in the merits of our case and that we will prevail on appeal.”
Humira, the biggest seller for Abbott Park, Illinois-based Abbott, generated $4.5 billion in global sales last year, or about 15 percent of Abbott’s total revenue, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The case is Centocor Inc. v. Abbott Laboratories, 07cv139, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas (Marshall).
To contact the reporters on this story: William McQuillen in Washington at bmcquillen@bloomberg.net;
Last Updated: November 5, 2009 11:44 EST
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