AbbVie is renouncing its membership in leading industry trade groups Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and the broader CEO Business Roundtable Association.
AbbVie did not give a reason for renouncing its membership, saying only in a statement: “We regularly evaluate our memberships with industry trade associations, and our most recent evaluation resulted in our decision not to renew our memberships with specific trade associations. qualifications.”
Politico first reported the news.
endpoint news Ask 10 other large pharmaceutical companies if they are leaving or considering leaving PhRMA or any other industry group. While not all had responded by press time, the likes of Lilly and Novartis said they had no plans to leave any industry group.
AbbVie’s decision to step down from the leading lobbying group comes after a major defeat in Congress this summer to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which created Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug prices, which it is about to impose. The pharmaceutical industry has numerous influences. The bill would also limit out-of-pocket expenses for seniors and limit their monthly insulin costs to $35.
PhRMA confirmed AbbVie’s departure from Endpoints in an email, saying in part that Big Pharma’s departure “doesn’t change our fight for the solutions patients and our healthcare system need.” the key of.”
PhRMA and its lobbyists aren’t used to failure — they’ve successfully reversed more than a decade of efforts to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices — so a historic loss may cause many to reassess what happened.
AbbVie CEO Richard Gonzalez, who was grilled by a Senate committee in 2019 over Humira’s pricing strategy, will testify before the House of Representatives in May 2021 The oversight committee testified again that representatives from both parties expressed outrage over a 2017 biosimilar competition to its giant drug Humira after internal documents showed AbbVie’s initial forecast, but then “adopted a legally questionable strategy.” Delay access to biosimilars until next year.
Gonzalez was one of more than 30 drug company CEOs who signed a letter in early August, sent shortly before the inflation bill passed, citing the bill as “an attack on medical innovation.” and the misleading ways in which it will be sold to Americans” concerns went public. “
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect that AstraZeneca has not indicated that it is or is not reviewing its membership, only that it has not updated its plans.