Judge rules Remicade patent is invalid

A federal judge ruled that U.S. Patent No. 6,284,471 from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), which covers immune drug Remicade infliximab, is invalid. The decision, which J&J plans to appeal, removes an obstacle to biosimilar competition for Remicade in the U.S.

The judge ruled on a suit filed last year by the pharma's Janssen Biotech Inc. unit and New York University against Celltrion Inc. (KOSDAQ:068270) and Hospira Inc., now part of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), seeking to prevent the companies from marketing the biosimilar Inflectra infliximab-dyyb. ...