A Texas jury has ordered Abbott Laboratories to pay $1.8 billion—the largest award in a patent infringement case to date. The case over breakthrough rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira pitted Centocor Ortho Biotech, of Horsham, Pennsylvania, and New York University (NYU) against Illinois-based drug giant Abbott Labs and its subsidiaries Abbott Bioresearch Center and Abbott Biotechnology. The dispute was over US Patent No. 7,070,775, issued to Centocor and NYU in July 2006, with Centocor as the exclusive licensee. At a jury trial in June 2009, the plaintiffs alleged that Abbott, in developing Humira (adalimumab) infringed their monoclonal antibody and antibody fragments patent. Worldwide sales of Humira topped $1.66 billion last year, making it by far Abbott's biggest product. The jury deliberated for five hours before ruling for the plaintiffs, finding that Abbott had infringed four claims of the '775 patent. Abbott was found not guilty of willful infringement, however. In December, US district judge T. John Ward ordered Centocor and NYU to recover from Abbott $1,168,466,000 in lost profits and $504,128,000 in reasonable royalties and awarded an additional $175,641,661 in prejudgment interest. Abbott has appealed the judgment to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. “While there are many issues still to be addressed by the Federal Circuit on the appeal,” says Thomas Kowalski of Frommer Lawrence & Haug, “the case shows that biotech patents are being upheld as valid, enforceable and infringed and serious defenses are being carefully considered.”