Abbvie Calls for U.S. International Trade Commission Investigation of Alvotech’s Humira Biosimilar

January 3, 2022

The manufacturer Abbvie has formally asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to investigate Alvotech’s lower-cost Humira biosimilar. Alvotech has faced allegations of trade espionage after claims in a now-dismissed lawsuit that the company illegally received trade secrets after hiring a former Abbvie employee. Abbvie’s official complaint comes after a scathing report from the U.S. House Committte on Oversight and Reform blasted the manufacturer’s use of litigation to stop competitors from making lower-cost versions of the drug, whose patent expired 7 years ago.

According to Ed Silverman of Stat News, “At issue is a strategy known as patent thickets, which is the use of dozens of patents that are obtained to fend off lower-cost competition. AbbVie filed more than 200 patents to protect Humira from rival medications for up to 39 years, according to a report by the Initiative for Medicines, Access, and Knowledge, or I-MAK, a nonprofit that studies pharmaceutical patents.”

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(Source: Stat News, December 20th, 2021)

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