UCB
SA, on behalf of its affiliate UCB Pharma S.A. (UCB), and PDL BioPharma, Inc. today
jointly announced that the companies have entered into a definitive settlement
agreement that resolves all legal disputes between them, including those
relating to UCB’s pegylated humanized antibody fragment, Cimzia (certolizumab
pegol), and PDL’s patents known as the Queen et al. patents.
Under
the settlement agreement, 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 US$10 million and the mutual resolution of
other disputes between the two companies, including two pending patent
interferences before the United States 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.
