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With New Patent Infringement Filing, Abbott Escalates Drug War With J&J Subsidiary
The American Lawyer
August 12, 2009
If you're throwing a cocktail party, it would be a good idea not to invite folks from both Abbott Biotech and the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Centocor Ortho Biotech. These are two companies that do not get along.
The reason for their abiding antipathy is autoimmune disease, or, to be more precise, drugs designed to treat autoimmune diseases. On June 30, you'll recall, Centocor won the biggest patent infringement verdict in U.S. history against Abbott, in a Marshall, Texas suit alleging that Abbott's blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug, Humira, infringes a patent co-owned by Centocor. That case, as we noted at the time, was part of a larger battle between Abbott and Centocor for control of the rheumatoid arthritis drug market; last May Abbott sued Centocor in Boston federal district court, claiming that Centocor's recently approved arthritis drug, Simponi, infringes Abbott's patent on Humira.
Abbott's Simponi case was stayed in July, right around the time that Centocor's Humira case went to trial in Texas. But on Monday, Abbott struck again. In another Boston federal district court complaint, Abbott is claiming that Centocor's psoriasis drug Stelera infringes an Abbott patent on a human antibody critical to the treatment of some autoimmune disorders. Abbott also claims that Centocor previously tried to block the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from awarding the antibody patent to Abbott, but that after the Board of Patent Interference considered Centocor's claims of priority and obviousness, the PTO nevertheless granted Abbott the patent. Abbott is currently developing a psoriasis treatment that makes use of the patented antibody. Here's the story from Bloomberg, which was first to report the new filing.
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr -- which was on the losing end of the $1.67 billion Humira verdict -- filed the new suit for Abbott. Abbott is using Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner in the now-stayed Simponi case. There's no defense counsel listed for Centocor on the docket sheet of the newly-filed suit, but it's a good bet that the company will turn once again to former Litigator of the Week Dianne Elderkin, who won the Humira verdict and is counsel of record for Centocor in the Simponi case.
Centocor spokesman Brian Kenney did not return our call for comment on the new Abbott filing, but he told Bloomberg that Johnson & Johnson is "reviewing the complaint and will vigorously contest it."
This article first appeared on The Am Law Litigation Daily blog on AmericanLawyer.com.
