AbbVie is ceasing its membership of the leading industry associations Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and the broader Business Roundtable Association of Chief Executives.
AbbVie gave no reason for canceling the memberships, saying only in a statement, “We regularly evaluate our memberships with trade associations and our most recent evaluation resulted in the decision not to renew our memberships with select trade associations.”
The news was first reported by Politico.
Endpoints News asked 10 other big pharma companies if they are, or considering, leaving PhRMA or other industry organizations. Although not all responded before press time, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Novartis were among those who said they have no intention of leaving industry groups.
AbbVie’s decision to leave the leading lobby group comes after a major defeat in Congress this summer with passage of the Anti-Inflation Act, which gives Medicare the ability to negotiate drug prices, with its many impending implications for the drug industry. The bill will also limit spending for seniors, capping their monthly insulin costs at $35.
PhRMA confirmed AbbVie’s departure to Endpoints in an email, saying in part that Big Pharma’s departure “does not change our focus on fighting for solutions that patients and our healthcare system need.”
The PhRMA and its lobbyists are not used to suffering defeats — they had successfully repelled efforts to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices for more than a decade — so the historic loss may prompt many to re-evaluate what happened.
AbbVie CEO Richard Gonzalez was criticized by a Senate committee for Humira’s pricing tactics in 2019, and he testified again before the House Oversight Committee in May 2021, with officials on both sides of the aisle expressing outrage after internal documents showed how AbbVie originally projected biosimilar competition for its megablockbuster Humira in 2017, but then employed “legally questionable tactics” to delay biosimilar access until next year.
Gonzalez was among more than 30 pharmaceutical industry CEOs who signed a letter in early August, sent shortly before the anti-inflation bill was passed, raising concerns about the bill’s “attack on medical innovation and the misleading way in which it is being used.” she’s being sold to the American, the public said.”