How to make your drug immortal

Fifteen years after winning FDA approval for the world’s best-selling drug, AbbVie has somehow managed to fend off U.S. competition for Humira through 2023. And a lawsuit from a rival sheds light on how that process might have worked.

According to STAT’s Ed Silverman, AbbVie is accused of re-patenting certain claims without telling the authorities that they were already in use. Another allegation claims that AbbVie patented things that had nothing to do with Humira, fanning out its intellectual property to thwart rivals.

AbbVie argues that it did nothing wrong, with CEO Richard Gonzalez telling analysts that “we have confidence in our position.”

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