AbbVie sues five generic companies over potential Rinvoq competitors

Ab­b­Vie spent the last decade pro­tect­ing its top-sell­ing Hu­mi­ra (adal­i­mum­ab) fran­chise from biosim­i­lar com­pe­ti­tion, and now the Chica­go-based com­pa­ny is su­ing five gener­ic drug com­pa­nies over po­ten­tial com­peti­tors to one of its oth­er lead­ing rheuma­toid arthri­tis drugs, Rin­voq (upadac­i­tinib).

Just as Ab­b­Vie used a fortress of patents to pro­tect Hu­mi­ra, the com­pa­ny is cit­ing more than 30 patents for Rin­voq that it says have been in­fringed up­on by San­doz, In­tas, Sun Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal, Au­robindo and Het­ero USA. All five com­pa­nies have filed their in­fring­ing ap­pli­ca­tions for Rin­voq gener­ics with the FDA, Ab­b­Vie al­leges.

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