UCB and PDL settle patent disputes over Cimzia; Natco challenges Gilead's Tamiflu

Brussels, Belgium-based UCB SA (Euronext Brussels: UCB) has entered into a definitive settlement agreement with US firm PDL BioPharma (Nasdaq: PDLI) that resolves all legal disputes between them, including those relating to UCB's pegylated humanized antibody fragment, Cimzia (certolizumab pegol), for the treatment of Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis, and PDL's patents known as the Queen et al patents.

Under the accord, PDL provided UCB a covenant not to sue UCB for any royalties regarding UCB's Cimzia product under the Queen patent portfolio in return for a lump sum payment of $10 million and the mutual resolution of other disputes between the two companies, including two pending patent interferences before the US Patent and Trademark Office and a patent opposition in the European Patent Office. No additional payments will be owed by UCB to PDL under the Queen patents in respect of Cimzia sales for any indication and the sale of a product in development that may or may not be approved within the term of the Queen patents.

Cimzia reached net sales of 138 million euros ($187 million) in the first nine months of 2010 and is building good momentum in a competitive market. It is now on track to generate revenues of 1.5 billion euros by 2020, the Belgian drugmaker said recently, when it announced that it was investing some $335 million to expand production capacity for Cimzia (The Pharma Letter January 4).