The drug giants moved in near-perfect synchronicity, raising prices for their top-selling arthritis treatments as though they were opposite-corner gas stations bumping up the price of unleaded.
On Jan. 3, 2013, AbbVie (ABBV) hiked the price of Humira, its blockbuster biologic drug for arthritis and related conditions, by 6.9 percent. A day later, Amgen (AMGN) followed with an identical increase for Enbrel, another biologic used to treat similar patients. The pattern repeated 10 more times between 2014 and early 2018. In every instance, prices of both drugs jumped by nearly the same percentage, usually within days of each other, topping out at the exact same amount, $63,363 per year, according to a STAT analysis of pricing data.
The rapid run-up, almost a 140 percent increase overall, reflects the companies’ clout in a market where patients suffer from autoimmune diseases that shackle them with blinding pain and can make everyday activities — eating, sleeping, raising kids — an ordeal. Humira is the world’s best-selling drug, while Enbrel holds the No. 5 slot, and neither therapy has competition from generic versions known as biosimilars.
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