FTC in­ves­ti­gates J&J con­tracts re­gard­ing the drug­mak­er's block­buster Rem­i­cade

In Sep­tem­ber 2017, Pfiz­er filed a law­suit al­leg­ing that J&J was col­lud­ing with in­sur­ers to en­sure the com­pa­ny’s block­buster au­toim­mune dis­ease drug, Rem­i­cade, was giv­en first pref­er­ence over its cheap­er biosim­i­lar. On Mon­day, J&J dis­closed that the US Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion (FTC) was in­ves­ti­gat­ing whether the com­pa­ny had vi­o­lat­ed an­titrust laws, in a reg­u­la­to­ry fil­ing.

J&J’s Rem­i­cade, first ap­proved in 1998, is a bi­o­log­ic used to treat var­i­ous ail­ments in­clud­ing rheuma­toid arthri­tis, plaque pso­ri­a­sis, Crohn’s dis­ease and ul­cer­a­tive col­i­tis. In the sec­ond quar­ter, the Band-Aid mak­er gen­er­at­ed $1.12 bil­lion in glob­al Rem­i­cade sales.

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