Johnson & Johnson Loses Remicade Patent in Appeal Ruling

• Remicade patent no different than old patent, agency says

• Ruling is second big patent loss in two weeks for drugmaker

Johnson & Johnson’s patent on its top-selling arthritis drug Remicade is invalid, a U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday in a defeat to the drugmaker that just last week lost a patent on another blockbuster medicine.

The antibodies covered by this patent were already disclosed in an earlier patent, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in a ruling posted on its electronic docket. The court upheld a decision from the U.S. Patent and Trademark ...