Over the years, shareholders at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) have repeatedly voiced concerns on a variety of subjects to top pharma companies. Now, as 2023 comes to a close, the group is taking pharma giants to task over their patenting strategies and potential human rights shortfalls.
In proposals to AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Gilead, Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Pfizer, the group is pushing the companies to review how add-on patents for medicines can affect patient access. Additionally, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer and Eli Lilly face calls to review and update their human rights policies.
While ICCR has voiced pharma-related complaints plenty of times in the past, its proposals haven't been met with much enthusiasm by the companies' larger pools of shareholders. In 2019, for instance, investors at several large pharma companies rejected the group's proposals to study the potential link between CEO pay and drug prices.
In ICCR's latest round of proposals, the group placed a spotlight on the effect that add-on patents can have on pricing and access. In AbbVie's case, ICCR called out the company for scoring 130 patents on its top-selling Humira, which culminated in 19 years of market exclusivity and allowed 27 price hikes since its 2002 launch.
In further making the case, ICCR cited an analysis by the Rand Corporation, which found that prices for U.S. branded drugs were nearly 3.5 higher than in 32 member countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
“It is shameful that in our wealthy country, one in three people say they do not take their medicines as prescribed due to costs,” Trinity Health’s Cathy Rowan, who led the filings with Pfizer and Eli Lilly, noted in a press release. “We need to see how pharma companies are taking access concerns into account when they seek additional patents on their drugs.”
Meanwhile, Pfizer, Lilly and Bristol Myers Squibb received proposals requesting that the companies either conduct and publish a human rights analysis or bring their human rights commitments up to international standards. The group hailed Novartis as a drugmaker that has adopted a human rights policy that recognizes access to medicines.
The shareholders “remain open to dialogue” with the companies, ICCR said. The proposals are expected to be voted on during the companies' annual meetings in the spring.