that only 2% of the Net Sales was due. It should have calculated on the basis of the full royalty of just over 5% and should have paid and continued to pay CAT accordingly." Justice Laddie went on to observe "...that the construction advanced by Abbott does violence to the language of the agreements, renders them obscure and makes little or no commercial sense. For this reason CAT wins the action." Abbott was required to pay CAT , some of which was to be passed to its partners in development. Of this sum, the Medical Research Council received , and in addition, Abbott was asked to pay the MRC a further over five years from 2006, providing that Humira remains on the market. The MRC also is to receive a further £5.1million (sterling) in respect of past royalties. Patent litigation On 29 May 2009, Johnson & Johnson's Centocor unit, the maker of infliximab, won a ruling for $1.67billion from Abbott Laboratories for patent infringement on the process for making Humira. However, in 2011, the judgment was overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In June 2020, a class action lawsuit filed by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500 (UFCW Local 1500) against AbbVie, alleging that the drug manufacturer used a patent thicket over 100 strong to maintain a monopoly on Adalimumab, was dismissed by the Northern District Court in Illinois. The dismissal was affirmed by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on August 1, 2022. AbbVie has extensively used the US patent system to delay competitors from entering the market, a process commonly known as "evergreening". It filed 311 patents for Humira, of which 165 were granted. AbbVie sued Amgen, the manufacturer of Amjevita, in 2016 for violating 10 of its patents. Amgen agreed to delay sales until 2023, which allowed AbbVie to drive up prices of Humira. Between 2016 and 2023, the price of Humira went up by 60%, during which time AbbVie made $114billion in profits from Humira. References Further reading External links AbbVie brands Immunosuppressants Monoclonal antibodies TNF inhibitors World Health Organization essential medicines Wikipedia medicine articles ready to translate Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs