The World’s Best-Selling Drug Just Lost a Key Patent Battle
Fortune is reporting that AbbVie’s Humira, the best-selling drug on the planet with a staggering $14 billion in 2016 sales, has lost a key patent battle with a prospective rival product by the small biotech Coherus Biosciences.
Reporter Sy Mukherjee explains that “The rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis medicine has recently been a target of biopharma companies that are trying to make generic Humira copycats called ‘biosimilars.’ That’s not surprising given both Humira’s market reach and the steep price of the brand name medication — which has a list price of about $4,500 for a set of two syringes before discounts and rebates, making it a prime target for cheaper alternatives.”
Humira sales make up more than 60 percent of AbbVie’s revenues.