ABBV AbbVie Inc

By Colin Kellaher

AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) and Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH on Tuesday said they have resolved their U.S. patent dispute over a biosimilar to Abbvie's Humira, the world's biggest selling drug.

AbbVie said it will grant Boehringer Ingelheim a non-exclusive license to its Humira-related intellectual property in the U.S., allowing the German company to begin selling its Humira biosimilar Cyltezo in the U.S. starting in July 2023.

Biosimilars are near-copies of biologic drugs, such as Humira, that are made from living cells and are analogous to generic copies of traditional pill-form medicines.

Humira, a drug used to treat diseases from rheumatoid arthritis to gut disorders, had nearly $20 billion in global sales in 2018. But AbbVie saw a 5.6% decline in Humira revenue in the first quarter this year, as competition from biosimilars led to a nearly 28% drop in sales overseas.

Sales of Humira biosimilars began in Europe late last year after a key AbbVie European patent expired, but a group of U.S. patents built up by AbbVie has prevented a U.S. launch.

AbbVie sued Boehringer Ingelheim in 2017, alleging that Cyltezo would infringe on many of the Humira patents. Boehringer Ingelheim, a family-owned pharmaceutical company based in Ingelheim, Germany, had accused AbbVie of developing a "patent thicket" to delay competition.

AbbVie, a North Chicago, Ill., biopharmaceutical company, on Tuesday said it will receive royalties from Boehringer Ingelheim, which it said will acknowledge the validity and enforceability of AbbVie's patents as part of the settlement.

Specific terms of the settlement, which involve no payment by AbbVie, weren't disclosed.

-Peter Loftus and Denise Roland contributed to this article.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 14, 2019 09:38 ET (13:38 GMT)

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