AMSTERDAM, 9 July 2025: The Amsterdam District Court declared the Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation (PAF) inadmissible in its court case against AbbVie, and has thus not engaged with substantive merits of the case.
PAF had argued that AbbVie acted unlawfully in setting the prices for its blockbuster drug Humira (adalimumab). According to PAF’s calculations, AbbVie earned as much as €1 billion in excess profit in the Netherlands, costing the health system an equivalent of 13,950 years of healthy life. PAF believes that companies have a right to make a profit, but not make excessive profits at the expense of human health. The court, however, did not address these arguments.
“We are disappointed that the court did not address the merits of our case;,” said Wilbert Bannenberg, Chairperson of the Board of PAF. “We are considering an appeal. Our goal remains to have the merits of this case assessed by a judge.”
At the heart of PAF’s case is the tension between limited health care budgets and steadily rising medicines prices. Sometimes a medicine is expensive because it is costly to produce or administer; but often it is expensive because companies abuse a market monopoly to maximise their profits – as it was in the Humira case.
PAF feels supported in its claims by authorities. For example, the Dutch Healthcare Authority (Nederlandse Zorgautoriteit, Nza) recently raised alarms about rising drug prices by identifying 7 expensive drugs (including Humira) and encouraging the government to avoid excessive spending during monopoly periods, and acknowledges that increased spending on expensive medicines can ‘crowd out’ other needed care.
PAF argued that AbbVie’s unfair pricing practices breach the duty of care a company owes to society in exchange for market exclusivity. Further, PAF claims a violation of the human right to health because excessive prices force healthcare systems with limited budgets to make difficult trade-offs. Finally, PAF claimed AbbVie abused a dominant market position, which is a violation of Dutch competition law.
Unfortunately, the court did not address any of FTV’s arguments on their merits.
“PAF will continue to fight to hold companies accountable when they charge excessive prices and crowd out other care,” said Irene Schipper, a corporate accountability specialist and board member of PAF. “We intend to work with policymakers and other stakeholders to ensure affordable access to essential medicines.”
Further resources
- Court press release (in Dutch)
- Background and further info on the case
- Video explaining the case
- Dutch Healthcare Authority (Nederlandse Zorgautoriteit, NZa) report: From patent to competition – Analysis of expenditure and use of 7 expensive medicines
- Zorgvuldig Advies’ “In-depth analysis: high profits made with Humira”: Follow-up to Zorgvuldig Advies’ first report in response to AbbVie’s ‘Statement of Defence’
- Letters from Dutch authorities relevant to the case:
- NZa position on expensive medicines and displacement: Dutch original; English machine translation
- Dutch National Healthcare Institute (Zorginstituut Nederland, ZIN): Letter in connection with the PAF v AbbVie lawsuit regarding Humira: Dutch original; English machine translation
- Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (Autoriteit Consument & Markt, ACM): Letter answering questions from the Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation: Dutch original
About the Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation
The Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation is an independent, public good foundation under Dutch law, which works to ensure equitable, affordable access to medicines for all. We value fair pricing for health products, in accordance with European and international legal and human rights standards. We therefore take issue when pharmaceutical companies abuse their market position to charge excessively high prices for medicines. We try to prevent this by providing governments and other stakeholders with advice and information. If this proves unsuccessful, we may consider legal action as a means to achieve our objectives.
About PAF’s previous case
This is PAF’s second case. PAF’s first case concerned the pharmaceutical company Leadiant, which made a 50-year-old drug, CDCA, 500 times more expensive after monopolising sources of raw materials, buying up competing products, and obtaining “orphan drug” status which provided for 10 years market exclusivity. This case resulted in a €19.6 million fine from the Dutch competition authority ACM in 2021, later reduced to €17 million and confirmed by the Rotterdam District Court. The Dutch PAF case inspired follow-on cases and fines in Italy and Spain.
About Humira
Humira is a medication for rheumatoid arthritis and seven other diseases that was first brought to the market in 2003. Humira became the largest selling pharmaceutical product in the world. AbbVie made $231 billion in global sales from Humira by 2024.