In the year since the Humira biosimilar floodgates opened, AbbVie’s star immunology player has proven tough to drown out. In a new effort to crack the popular immunology drug’s 82% grasp on the market, Boehringer Ingelheim partnered up with GoodRx to offer its interchangeable version at a steep discount.
Boehringer will offer the unbranded version of its biosimilar on GoodRx at an “exclusive cost” of $550 for a two-pack of the pre-filled syringe or autoinjector, making for a price point 92% below branded Humira’s.
"Patients with certain chronic inflammatory diseases who do not have insurance or are underinsured may not be able to afford essential biologic medicines, including biosimilars, to treat their disease," BI’s vice president of value and access, Chris Marsh, said in a press release. "Partnering with GoodRx to offer our biosimilar Adalimumab-adbm at a low price to these patients helps us deliver on our commitment to lowering financial barriers and improving access to critical treatments."
The move comes during a rocky launch for a drug once lauded as a “landmark achievement” for the field by some analysts after its 2021 approval.
Since hitting the market last July, Boehringer has initiated a “two-price strategy” shared by Amgen and its Humira copycat Amjevita plus Biocon and its Hulio. BI’s branded version, Cyltezo, was initially priced at a 5% discount from Humira while its unbranded option came later at an 81% markdown. In some cases, this strategy results in the pricier version being more popular with payers due to higher rebates associated with the costlier option.
Even so, Cyltezo only brought in 1,487 prescriptions as of April, whereas Humira picked up almost 2.8 million in the same timeframe, Reuters has reported, citing from IQVIA data. The lagging sales prompted Boehringer to pivot its marketing strategy in favor of a hybrid in-person and virtual sales model, leading to “a low double-digit number” of layoffs within the company’s customer-facing Cyltezo teams.
The staff cuts were attributed in part to the “complexities of a complicated landscape and several challenges with PBMs keeping Humira on formulary” stifling biosimilar uptake, a spokesperson told Fierce Pharma at the time.
Then in May, Boehringer inked a deal with Cigna’s private-label distributor Quellent Pharmaceuticals. Under the agreement, the company will provide Quallent with its unbranded biosimilar in an “important step in enabling greater adoption of these lower-cost options,” Marsh said in a statement at the time.
With ten approved biosimilars, Humira’s slice of the market is a showing of stamina despite the shrink to 82%. Sandoz’ Hyrimoz, under its Cordavis co-label, is responsible for “most biosimilar gains,” Samsung Bioeps found in its recent biosimilar market report. Cordavis is CVS Health’s new biosimilar subsidiary. AbbVie’s own Cordavis co-branded Humira version holds about a quarter of the market for Cordavis-labeled products, according to the report.