Judge upholds Abbott's $1.67 billion patent suit loss to J&J

Abbott Laboratories failed to convince 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 profits on sales of its own arthritis medicines, Ward wrote in a ruling dated yesterday. It was the biggest patent verdict in U.S. history.

Abbott failed to prove an allegation it made seeking to have the penalty reduced 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, Ward wrote.

Last month, Ward rejected Abbott's request for a new trial or to reduce the patent award. Abbott had claimed the award was "clearly excessive."

Humira, the biggest seller for Abbott Park-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).