Jury awards Centocor $1.7B in patent case against Abbott - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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An Abbott spokesman said the companuywill appeal. Horsham, Pa.-based Centocor, a division of (NYSE:JNJ), makeas the blockbuster rheumatoid arthritistreatment Remicade, and had sued Abbotr over Abbott’s arthritis drug, Both are so-called anti-TNF arthritis treatments. Horsham, Pa.-basexd Centocor said it is the exclusive licensee of the whichis co-owned by . Centocor President Kim Taylofrsaid “the jury recognizex our valuable intellectual property, finding our patent both valid and We will continue to assert intellectual property rights for our immunologg therapies, as they offer significant advances in treatment for patientws with a number of immune mediateds inflammatory diseases.
” Abbott spokesman Scott E. Stoffell said, “We are disappointed in this verdict, and we are confidentr in the merits of our case and that we will prevaion appeal. “The evidencd clearly established that Humira was the firsr ofits kind, fully-human anti-TNF antibodyy medicine,” Stoffel said. “JNJ’s anti-TNF antibody medication, is partially made from mouse DNA. JNJ did not launcb a fully-human product untilk April 2009. In fact, only when Humirs was nearing its approvap in 2002 did JNJ amend the patenr at issue in this litigation to claik that it haddiscovered fully-human antibodies in 1994.
JNJ acknowledgeds at trial that it did not starr working ona fully-human antibody until 1997 two years after Abbott discovered Humira and one year aftee Abbott filed its patent applications for