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ICER Says AbbVie’s Humira, Six Other Drugs Had Major Unsupported Price Hikes

November 18, 2021

AbbVie’s rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira (adalimumab) and six other drugs whose prices were raised in 2020 without supportive clinical data cost the U.S. health system $1.67 billion in annual drug spending, according to a new analysis by the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER).

Of the 10 drugs the Boston-based nonprofit identified that saw significant net price hikes after rebates and discounts in 2020, seven were not backed up by new clinical evidence justifying the increases. Humira’s net price increased by 9.6 percent, costing the U.S. healthcare system almost $1.4 billion.

Humira’s increased U.S. price “contrasts starkly to its falling price in every country where Humira currently faces biosimilar competition,” noted David Rind, ICER’s chief medical officer.

“Even more concerning, several of these treatments have been on the market for many years, with scant evidence that they are any more effective than we understood them to be years ago when they cost far less.”

The other drugs singled out in the report are AbbVie’s Lupron Depot (leuprorelin), Novartis’ Promacta (eltromobopag), Biogen’s Tysabri (natalizumab), Bausch Health’s Xifaxan (rifaximin), Supernus Pharmaceuticals’ Trokendi XR (topiramate) and Horizon Therapeutics’ Krystexxa (pegloticase).

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