AbbVie accused of overcharging Dutch for flagship drug Humira

Drugmaker AbbVie is being taken to court by a public interest group in the Netherlands for allegedly overcharging Dutch citizens for its blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira and breaching their human rights.

The Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation, which logged a claim against the company on Tuesday at a district court in Amsterdam, said in a statement that AbbVie had abused its dominant position in the market from 2004 to 2018 “to keep prices and profits high”.

Wilbert Bannenberg, the PAF’s chair, said: “By making excessive profits, amounting to €68 per Dutch citizen, AbbVie has displaced other healthcare, and thus damaged the health of Dutch citizens.

“No doctor wants to be forced to prioritise one patient [or] treatment over another due to limited budgets.”

Lawsuits surrounding access to drugs are nothing new. But the human rights element of the lawsuit brought by PAF against AbbVie is novel because it considers the overall effect of high prices on healthcare and society, even for those who did not directly access the drug, rather than focusing on one single molecule.

The PAF, which was set up in 2018 and previously fought a similar battle against pharmaceutical company Leadiant, has claimed AbbVie overcharged Dutch citizens by as much as €1.2bn. The Leadiant case resulted in a €19.5mn fine from the Dutch competition authority in 2021.

It said it calculated AbbVie’s “excessive profit” by subtracting all research and development costs, production and distribution costs, and a “fair” 25 per cent profit margin from the drug’s turnover.

AbbVie, the maker of Humira, said it “acts in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations”.

“We firmly reject the allegations by the Dutch Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation, which are without merit, and remain fully committed to the patients and the societal needs we serve,” it said.

The lawsuit comes amid increased tensions between governments and pharmaceutical companies over increasing drug prices. One such flashpoint recently involved AbbVie, which, along with Eli Lilly, exited an NHS pricing agreement in the UK over a rise in clawback payments.

AbbVie sold €2.3bn worth of Humira in the Netherlands during its monopoly, which lasted from 2004 to 2018, according to the PAF. Eventually, alternative versions of the drug became available.

Humira has been a blockbuster for AbbVie, bringing in more than $200bn in sales worldwide. Most of that has come from the US, where prices have exceeded $80,000 per patient per year. The US Congress has repeatedly questioned the company over its pricing and intellectual property strategy.

The Dutch ministry of health said in a statement that it does not “judge the financial performance of individual companies”. It added: “We do note, however, that spending on expensive drugs is increasing every year, and this worries us.”

“The legal case against AbbVie concerns the fundamental question to what extent pharmaceutical companies like AbbVie are free to set and maintain the prices of the drugs they offer,” the PAF said.

“PAF’s success in this case could establish that there are limits to be respected under written or unwritten law, and that these limits can be enforced when they are exceeded.”