AbbVie angered at 'pay-for-delay' Humira claims

Since October of 2017, US drugmaker AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) has reached two settlements with biosimilar manufacturers over the entry date of their biosimilar versions of Humira (adalimumab) into the US market.

As the world’s best-selling drug, the arthritis treatment earned AbbVie $18.4 billion in 2017, and the company will continue to rake in such sums until 2023, when the two deals allow for the competitors – the US biotech Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN) and Korea’s Samsung Bioepis – to enter the market with their cheaper versions.

While that seems to keep the companies involved happy, it is not a fair solution for patients who will continue to pay the price of the original drug, says the action group Patients For Affordable Drugs (P4AD), which has called on the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate whether the recently-announced deal with Samsung Bioepis is anti-competitive and violates antitrust laws.