The Wall Street Journal

House Committee takes on AbbVie’s pricing, patents for top-selling drug Humira

Published: May 18, 2021 at 4:44 p.m. ET

By

Jared S. Hopkins

Comments

CEO Richard Gonzalez testified that lowering drug prices alone wouldn’t increase access to prescription drugs for patients

AbbVie's CEO Richard Gonzalez testified before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform remotely on Tuesday.

c-span

Email icon
Facebook icon
Twitter icon
Linkedin icon
Flipboard icon

Print icon
Resize icon

AbbVie Inc.’s ABBV, +0.27% pricing practices for some of its top-selling medicines faced fresh scrutiny from federal lawmakers Tuesday, the latest effort by members of Congress probing the cost of prescription drugs.

Democratic members of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform have been investigating how AbbVie sets the prices of some of its products, including its top-selling immunology drug, Humira.

At the hearing, committee members questioned AbbVie Chief Executive Richard Gonzalez about price increases for Humira as well as AbbVie’s patents and other efforts to protect the drug from competition from lower-priced copies known as biosimilars.

Mr. Gonzalez said lowering drug prices alone wouldn’t increase access to prescription drugs for patients, including some Medicare patients. He said AbbVie provides medications to some patients who can’t afford them at no-cost or through co-pay assistance.

An expanded version of this article appears on WSJ.com.

Popular stories from WSJ.com:

AMC Entertainment stock jumps toward 8th straight gain

Shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. undefined shot up 7.8% in premarket trading Tuesday, putting them on track for an eighth straight gain, which would be the longest win streak in nearly three years. The movie theater operator's stock has rocketed 68.6% over the past seven days, which would be the best seven-day performance since the height of the trading frenzy surrounding so-called meme stocks in early February. In comparison, shares of fellow movie theater operator Cinemark Holdings Inc. undefined have gained 7.7% over the past seven sessions, but has lost ground on four of those days. The stock is also set to open at the highest price seen during regular trading sessions since Feb. 1. AMC shares have recently received a boost from renewed interest by retail investors, as reported by MarketWatch's Thornton McEnery. The last time the stock rose for eight straight days was the eight-day streak that ended Aug. 23, 2018; during that eight-day streak, the stock rose just 10.0%. AMC shares have rocketed 558.0% year to date through Monday, while the S&P 500 undefined has tacked on 10.8%.