Abbott Ordered to Pay $1.67B in Patent Case

By Jennifer Malloy Zonnas

LOS ANGELES -- A unit of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ Quote) said a federal jury has ordered Abbott Laboratories (ABT Quote) to pay $1.67 billion in a patent infringement suit over the companies' rheumatoid arthritis drugs.

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 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 rheumatoid arthritis. ...