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FTC Urged To Investigate AbbVie’s IP Strategy On Humira

US Representatives Suggest Biosimilar Adalimumab Competition Delayed From 2017 To 2023

 
• By Dave Wallace

AbbVie delayed biosimilar competition to Humira “for far longer than warranted” and may have “engaged in other anti-competitive conduct to maintain its market share and pricing power” for the adalimumab brand, according to members of the US House of Representatives’ committee on oversight and reform. The US Federal Trade Commission has been urged to open a formal inquiry into the originator’s conduct.

Hourglass Delay Stop Time
The FTC has been asked to investigate AbbVie over delays to Humira biosimilars • Source: Alamy

AbbVie has come under fire in the US for using its intellectual property strategy around Humira (adalimumab) to delay biosimilar competition, as well as engaging in “other anti-competitive conduct to maintain its market share and pricing power” for the top-selling biologic arthritis treatment.

Suggesting that the originator’s actions delayed biosimilar competition to Humira “for far longer than warranted,” until 2023, members of the US House of Representatives’ committee on oversight and reform have urged the

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