Allergan Aesthetics scored a big legal patent infringement win tied to its blockbuster wrinkle-treatment Botox.
A federal court in Delaware last month awarded the Irvine-based aesthetics unit of biopharmaceutical giant AbbVie Inc. $56 million following a legal dispute with rival company Revance Therapeutics.
The jury found that Revance’s Daxxify infringed on three patents related to the formulation and manufacturing of Botox.
Allergan declined to comment for this story. The verdict comes four years after Allergan first sued Revance in 2021 for infringing five patents.
Daxxify is a competing treatment to Botox and was approved for temporary improvement of moderate to severe frown lines by the Food and Drug Administration in 2022.
Revance was acquired by private skincare company Crown Laboratories Inc. in February for about $315 million.
Botox has become one of the most well-known neurotoxins in the market. Last year, it generated $2.7 billion in global sales, accounting for more than half of AbbVie’s aesthetics revenues.
Chicago-based AbbVie acquired Allergan for $63 billion in 2020. It sports a $339 billion market cap (NYSE: ABBV).
Legal Battle Timeline
The dispute between Allergan and Revance has been long running.
Following the 2021 lawsuit, Allergan in 2023 filed a separate lawsuit against Revance, alleging that Revance recruited several employees, including high-level executives, to steal trade secrets about Botox and dermal filler Juvéderm. A federal judge in Tennessee denied Revance’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit and the case is still pending.
The original patent infringement lawsuit centered on five Botox patents that were set to expire between 2022 and 2029, according to industry news site Fierce Pharma.
In the July 18 verdict, the jury assigned a royalty rate of 15% on a current formulation patent, and rates of 12% and 4% on manufacturing patents that expired in 2023.
202 Employees in Irvine Laid Off
Last month, Allergan’s layoff of 202 employees in Irvine took effect.
Of the 202 employees, only 19 were reported to have worked in-person at the Irvine location with the rest being remote, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice.
Affected positions include sales, data engineers and product managers across various divisions.
Allergan recently opened its first of three U.S. training centers in Irvine. The 210,000-square-foot facility was created to teach aesthetic providers about clinical skills, as well as its portfolio of products.
In June, the FDA accepted Allergan’s supplemental premarket approval application for Skinvive to reduce neck lines to improve neck appearance.
“The submission of Skinvive by Juvéderm to treat neck lines demonstrates our continued focus on developing new indications for comprehensive lower face and neck treatment as part of our market-leading portfolio of products, including BOTOX Cosmetic and SkinMedica,” Darin Messina, senior vice president of aesthetics R&D at AbbVie, said in a statement.
The hyaluronic acid filler is currently approved in the U.S. to improve skin smoothness of the cheeks in adults over the age of 21.
If approved, Skinvive will be the first hyaluronic acid injectable treatment option aimed at reducing neck lines, according to the company.
