Dueling Patent Suits -- Involving Remicade® and Now, Simponi®. . . .

UPDATED -- 05.06.09 @ 7PM:

Peter Loftus of the Wall Street Journal has picked up the below story's meme, this afternoon. Do take a look.

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In early 2007, in the federal courts in the Eastern District of Texas, Centocor sued Abbott for patent infringement -- alleging that Abbott's Humira^® (adalimumab), infringed upon patent claims held by Centocor's Remicade^® (infliximab) -- that suit is supposed to go to trial in late-June 2009, unless a court-sanctioned mediation (now scheduled for early-June, in New York) succeeds (latest memorandum opinion -- a very large 21-page PDF):

. . . .One of the antibodies claimed in the patents is Centocor’s biologic treatment Remicade® (infliximab), which contains the novel cA2 antibody and is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, psoriasis, and ankylosing spondilitis. . . . The defendants [Abbott Labs] make and sell Humira® (adalimumab), which is the accused product and a biologic treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. . . .

Fast forward, about two years. . . .

Today, Bloomberg reports that Abbott filed suit in a federal court in Massachusetts -- alleging that Centocor's recently-approved Simponi^® (golimumab) infringes patents held by Abbott's Humira^®. "Backatcha'!" says Abbott's Miles White, to J&J's William Weldon, this afternoon. . . .

Why do I mention all of these excesses of testosterone? Well, because I think these litigation "puts and takes" will at least marginally increase Johnson & Johnson's desire to seek the return of the non-US rights to Remicade and Simponi, from Schering-Plough (via the "change in Control" escape hatch). That (mandatory arbitration) is a slightly less-thorny path (for J&J) to secure an estimated $3 billion per year in incremental revenue, as compared to protracted dueling sets of opposing patent litigation proceedings, in two separate federal courts, half a continent apart. I actually expect that Abbott and Centocor/J&J will ultimately settle their respective differences -- working out reciprocal royalties, of some sort, on all US sales of each product -- but that, in turn may well reduce J&J's margins -- in the US -- on Remicade and Simponi.

And that is where the "rubber will likely meet the road" -- as CEO Bill Weldon drives toward Keniworth, thinking about all those Euros, Pounds and Yen piling up on Remicade, and now, Simponi sales -- and being booked, on a consolidated basis, month-by-month, into K-1 (and very soon, now -- into Whitehouse Station).