Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation

PRESS RELEASE: Lawsuit against AbbVie for abuse of economic dominance and violation of human rights moves to substantive phase
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AbbVie’s Humira pricing policy drained up to €1.2 billion from the Dutch healthcare system

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS: Today the Amsterdam District Court ruled that the lawsuit filed by the Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation  (PAF) against drug manufacturer AbbVie may proceed to its merits.

In February 2023, PAF filed a lawsuit against AbbVie, alleging that the company acted unlawfully with the sale of its rheumatoid arthritis drug, Humira, in the Netherlands, namely in violation of human rights and by abusing its economic dominance to charge excessive prices. AbbVie overcharged the Dutch healthcare system an estimated €1.2 billion with Humira sales.

“Pharmaceutical companies do not sell luxury goods; they sell life-saving medicines. By charging excessive prices, AbbVie is violating human rights and neglecting its duty of care towards society,” said Wilbert Bannenberg, PAF chairperson .

AbbVie’s initial response focused on procedural issues. Among other things, AbbVie argued that PAF would be inadmissible. An initial meeting before the court took place on May 14 of this year.

Today’s court ruling means that the case can be judged on its substantive merits. PAF expects to meet AbbVie in court again in early 2025.

Press contact:

  • Wilbert Bannenberg, PAF Chairperson. wilbert@pharmaceuticalaccountability.org 

Background information:

AbbVie sold €2.3 billion worth of Humira in the Netherlands between 2004 and 2018, representing an average price of €11,000 per patient per year. AbbVie achieved a 78% gross profit on Humira worldwide. After deducting a “reasonable” profit of 25%, the company thus made 53% excessive profit: in the Netherlands, this comes an amount up to €1.2 billion, or €68 per Dutch citizen. Worldwide sales of Humira until the end of 2023 amounted to $228 billion; AbbVie’s excessive profits are thus estimated at $120 billion worldwide.

As soon as competitors entered the Dutch market in 2018, AbbVie promptly lowered its prices by more than 80%, demonstrating that the high price of Humira at that time was not due to cost considerations, but an attempt to use AbbVie’s monopoly to maximize profits.

There are three grounds for legal action against AbbVie:

First, it abused its economic power position. Under the Competition Act and EU law, companies that have a monopoly (e.g., through a patent) may not abuse that dominant position by, for example, charging excessively high prices, as in this case. AbbVie’s excessive pricing violates this regulation, according to the Foundation.

Second, AbbVie’s pricing is responsible for displacement of care. Financial resources for health care are limited, and health authorities must make choices about which costs can be reimbursed, and consequently which medicines can be made available to patients. When drug prices are higher than the system can afford, health authorities must ration care and/or make trade-offs. Some drugs are expensive to produce and/or expensive to administer. Others are cheap to produce but have excessive prices due to monopoly abuse. The Foundation argues that AbbVie is guilty of the latter.

Third, AbbVie violated human rights. Internationally, the “right to life” and the “right to the highest attainable standard of health” are recognized as human rights. The United Nations has published the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” that formulate the human rights responsibilities of private companies. Companies are given temporary monopolies on medicines to help them recover research and development costs; in return, they are expected to maintain a duty of care towards the society that has given them these rights. By charging excessive prices, AbbVie is violating these rights and neglecting its duties regarding socially responsible behaviour.

It is now up to the court to decide the next steps. The Foundation expects a public court hearing on the merits in early 2025.

For more details, see: https://www.pharmaceuticalaccountability.org/humira-adalimumab/