Humira: The Most Financially Successful Drug Ever!

Humira: The Most Financially Successful Drug Ever!

Humira has made $200 Billion over the course of its pharmaceutical life.  The original Humira patent expired, but the makers of Humira--AbbVie--filed an additional 132 patents and extended its patent-life to 2023.

During that time, AbbVie raised the price of Humira 30 times from $522 per syringe to $2,984 per syringe.  It now costs $78,000 per year to treat one patient with Humira.

Consequently, AbbVie rose to be worth $270 Billion and is the 23rd most valuable company on the stock market... $80 Billion larger than the Walt Disney Company.

Express Scripts, Optum and Prime Therapeutics will offer biologic alternatives to Humira in 2023, but CVS Caremark has yet to announce any alternative to the expensive medication.

Humira shows how completely ineffective PBMs are in controlling specialty pharmacy costs.

Alternative solutions include: 1) Travel to Mexico/Canada to buy specialty drugs for less, 2) Hire own specialists (e.g. rheumatologists) who will be better stewards of the employers resources while still following clinical best-practices, 3) Have lawyers try to get plan members that take specialty medications on Disability so that Medicare will cover their medication costs, 4) Legislative Advocacy to counter the Pharma lobbying that allowed for confiscatory pricing of specialty pharmacy medications.


Sources:
https://www.fiercepharma.com/special-...

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/...

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/paye...

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...

https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/hu...

https://clincalc.com/DrugStats/Drugs/...

https://endpts.com/house-committee-un...

https://www.liberatedstocktrader.com/...

https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/h...

https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display...

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