'What’s wrong with hav­ing lots of patents?' Fed­er­al ap­peals judge sides with Ab­b­Vie in Hu­mi­ra case

A fed­er­al ap­peals court ruled in Ab­b­Vie’s fa­vor on Mon­day, up­hold­ing an Illi­nois court’s de­ci­sion to dis­miss al­le­ga­tions that the phar­ma gi­ant cre­at­ed an un­law­ful “patent thick­et” around its block­buster drug Hu­mi­ra.

Since its first ap­proval in rheuma­toid arthri­tis back in 2002, Hu­mi­ra has be­come one of the in­dus­try’s top sell­ers, snap­ping up a suite of new in­di­ca­tions rang­ing from ul­cer­a­tive col­i­tis to anky­los­ing spondyli­tis. The drug raked in more than $5.3 bil­lion last quar­ter. Its orig­i­nal patent ex­pired in 2016 — how­ev­er, Ab­b­Vie has ob­tained 132 ad­di­tion­al patents re­lat­ed to the drug, the last of which runs out in 2034.

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