Humana, a Kentucky-based health insurance company, is suing a few drugmakers for allegedly engaging in illegal practices to protect the market exclusivity of their HIV medications, which has resulted in outrageous drug prices despite the availability of generic alternatives, according to Healthcare Dive.
On Monday, Humana filed suits in a Northern California district court against Gilead Sciences, Bristol Myers Squibb, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and Teva Pharmaceuticals – all of which manufacture generic drugs.
The health insurance company alleges that these drug makers conspired to impede and delay competition for their HIV drugs, which especially allowed Gilead to retain a monopoly for years when generics should have hit the market.
It says this conspiracy forced Humana to shell out more for HIV drugs than they otherwise would have.
Gilead dominates the HIV drug market, as it manufactures three of the four best-selling HIV drugs. In addition, it develops other drugs used in HIV combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). And more than 80% of American patients with HIV take one or more of Gilead’s products daily, according to the Humana suit.
It takes under $10 for Gilead to produce its HIV medications. However, for almost 20 years, it has charged insurers thousands of dollars for a 30-day supply, according to Humana, resulting in enormous profits.
The insurer alleges that Gilead has been keeping its HIV dominance through a “comprehensive, illegal scheme to blockage competition.”
It also said that Gilead allegedly collaborated with Bristol Myers and Janssen to combine their drugs, insulating them and their component parts from generic competition, according to Healthcare Dive.
Humana has accused in the suit, “All of these anticompetitive agreements and actions combined to insulate Gilead’s product portfolio from the drastic price erosion that would have occurred with effective competition, and resulted in billions of dollars in annual excess profits that accrued (and continue to accrue) to Gilead and its co-conspirators.”
Humana also accused Teva, one of the largest generic manufacturers, of so-called “pay-for-delay” deals with Gilead, which the Biden administration has proposed banning.
A Gilead representative told Healthcare Dive that the suit “distorts and misstates” the company’s history, collaborations, and settlement agreements.
The rep said in a statement, “Gilead believes this lawsuit and its antitrust allegations are without merit. The allegations against Gilead are misguided and do not accurately reflect antitrust laws or Gilead’s history of innovative collaboration and competition in HIV medicines.”
To know more what Humana has to say about the suit, read the article titled “Humana sues slate of drugmakers, alleging anticompetitive practices to protect HIV drug monopoly.” The article was published online Tuesday on Healthcare Dive.
