J&J Unit Wins $1.67 Billion Verdict Against Abbott Labs

A unit of Johnson & Johnson said Monday that a federal jury has ordered Abbott Laboratories to pay $1.67 billion in a patent infringement suit over the companies' rheumatoid arthritis drugs.

AP

Abbott's best-selling drug, Humira, competes with the drug Remicade, an anti-TNF class of arthritis treatments made by J&J's Centocor. That company and New York University filed a patent infringement suit against Abbott Park, Illinois-based Abbott in April 2007 in the Eastern District of Texas.

Anti-TNF refers to drugs which block tumor necrosis factor proteins in the blood. When present in excessive amounts, TNF can cause inflammation, which leads to many of the symptoms suffered by those with autoimmune disorders like RA.

"We are pleased that the jury has ruled in our favor in the patent litigation case against Abbott," said Kim Taylor, president of Centocor Ortho Biotech, in a statement. "We are particularly gratified that the jury recognized our valuable intellectual property, finding our patent both valid and infringed."

"We are disappointed in this verdict, and we are confident in the merits of our case and that we will prevail on appeal," Abbott spokesman Scott Stoffel responded in a statement.

Humira has been key to Abbott's success story in recent years, racking up approvals for half a dozen uses, including psoriasis and Crohn's disease. Abbott booked $4.5 billion in Humira sales in 2008, and reported sales of $1.02 billion for the 2009 fourth quarter.

Stoffel said evidence "clearly established" that Humira was the first fully human anti-TNF antibody medicine, given that Remicade is partially made from mouse DNA and that J&J didn't launch a fully human product until April of this year.

"J&J acknowledged at trial that it did not start working on a fully-human antibody until 1997 -- two years after Abbott discovered Humira and one year after Abbott filed its patent applications for Humira," Stoffel added.

Taylor said Centocor will continue to assert intellectual property rights for its immunology therapies.

Shares of both J&J and Abbott were down slightly Tuesday.

FDA Panel Recommends Smaller Doses of Tylenol, Other Painkillers

Government experts say the maximum daily dose listed on Tylenol and dozens of other painkillers should be reduced to help curb deadly overdoses.

The Food and Drug Administration's panel voted 21-16 to lower the current maximum dose of nonprescription acetaminophen, which is 4 grams, or eight pills per day.

Taking more than that can cause potentially fatal liver damage.

Federal regulators are asking experts to vote on ways to prevent overdose with acetaminophen — the key ingredient in Tylenol, Excedrin and other medications.

Despite years of educational campaigns and other actions, the FDA says acetaminophen remains the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S.

The panel also is scheduled to vote on other proposals to reduce overdose with the drugs.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.