Abraxis loses civil suit.

A Santa Monica jury has awarded a tiny Netherland Antilles-based licensing company $2.6 million in fees and interest that it ruled a subsidiary of Abraxis Bioscienee Inc. owes for licensing a piece of drug delivery technology first developed at UCLA.

The case dates from the late 1990s, when a predecessor company of Los Angeles-based Abraxis was a struggling drug developer years away from FDA approval for its first cancer drug, Abraxane. Abraxis was formed from the 2006 merger of two companies controlled by former UCLA researcher Dr. Patrick SoonShiong.

Bioquest Venture Leasing Co. contends that VivoRx, a subsidiary of SoonShiong's American BioScience Inc., still owed $960,000 in licensing fees when it stopped making payments in 1999.

The technology, developed by another UCLA researcher, involved a way to deliver therapies via biomanufactured antibodies, and is not used in any current Abraxis product. But Bioquest contends VivoRx sublicensed the intellectual property to another company, which is using the technology in its products today. It also contends that American BioScience siphoned revenue from VivoRx to cover some unrelated legal battles it was fighting, a contention the company denied.

Attorneys handing the case for Abraxis were traveling and could not be reached for comment, a company spokeswoman said. The Los Angeles Superior Court judge in the case is whether Abraxis, as the surviving parent company, is the "alter ego" entity liable for the damages.