J&J abandons Remicade patent fight against Samsung and its Renflexis biosim

Pharma giant Johnson & Johnson is determined to defend Remicade against a growing biosimilar attack, but now the company has dropped its lawsuit accusing Samsung Bioepis of infringing patents on the blockbuster immunology drug. 

Partners Samsung and Merck launched their biosim Renflexis in July, despite the ongoing patent fight. J&J's Janssen unit had sued to block the rollout and asked the court to force Samsung to participate in the "patent dance," a dispute resolution process set out in the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act.

But since then, the Supreme Court ruled in the landmark Amgen v. Sandoz case that patent dance violations aren’t enforceable by injunction at the federal level. And with that decision, the first two counts of Janssen's case were moot. Now, J&J has dropped (PDF) the entire lawsuit "with prejudice," meaning it can't bring the allegations in a later filing.