Global sales of Humira, the blockbuster drug that treats autoimmune diseases like arthritis and psoriasis, hit $19.9 billion in 2018, an 8.2% increase from 2017, AbbVie reported Friday. AbbVie has collected more than $115 billion in global Humira sales since 2010, 58% of which has come from the U.S.
The bottom line: AbbVie has made and will continue to make a lot of money from Humira. Butcheaper copycat versions in Europe are expected to erode sales by $2 billion this year, which sent AbbVie's stock reeling.
The World Health Organization says the cost of developing new cancer treatments doesn’t seem to justify those drugs’ high prices, as the pharmaceutical industry argues.
The big picture: "The costs of R&D and production may bear little or no relationship to how pharmaceutical companies set prices of cancer medicines,” WHO officials said in a recent research paper.
BridgeBio Pharma, a Palo Alto, California-based drug company focused on genetic diseases, raised $299 million in new funding. KKR and Viking Global co-led and were joined by fellow return backers Perceptive Advisors, AIG, Aisling Capital, Cormorant Capital and Hercules Capital. New investor Sequoia Capital also participated.
Why it matters: Its primary product is other biotech companies, using a "hub-and-spoke" model that already has formed such subsidiaries as Eidos Therapeutics (IPO'd last year), QED Therapeutics (launched with $65 million in funding to develop a Novartis drug) and PellePharma (signed $70 million deal with LEO Pharma that could be worth another $700 million).
A new report by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association says spending on planned knee and hip replacements is increasing, driven mainly by an increase in the number of procedures among people under 65.
By the numbers: The number of knee replacements increased by 17% between 2010 and 2017, and hip replacements rose by 33%.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker wants to move closer to direct price-setting for certain high-cost drugs, CommonWealth magazine reports, citing Baker's latest budget proposal.
Why it matters: Hey, does anybody remember what became of the last big health care reform from a moderate Republican governor of Massachusetts? Did that end up catching on anywhere else?
Surprise medical bills are on President Trump's radar, as yesterday's White House roundtable on health care costs made clear.
One big quote: "Patients should know ... the real price and what’s going on with the real prices of procedures. Because they don’t know," Trump said. "They go in, they have a procedure, and then all of a sudden, they can’t afford it. They had no idea it was so bad."
