Anyone holding out hope that a lower-cost version of the Humira rheumatoid arthritis treatment might soon become available in the U.S. can forget about it.
That’s because AbbVie (ABBV) has settled patent litigation with Boehringer Ingelheim, which will be allowed to sell a biosimilar version of the medicine as part of the deal — but not until July 2023. Boehringer had been the sole holdout among several large drug makers that previously reached such agreements, which also preclude them from marketing versions of Humira for another four years.
While the settlement ends the litigation, the episode is likely to reverberate because Humira has been a closely watched symbol not only of high drug prices, but the lengths to which some drug makers will go to protect their most important product franchises. For this reason, the company has come under increasing scrutiny by lawmakers, consumer advocates, and activist shareholders.
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