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AbbVie Sues HHS Over Botox Price Controls
12 Feb
Summary
- AbbVie filed suit challenging Medicare's decision to impose price controls on Botox.
- The drugmaker argues Botox is a plasma-derived product exempt from price controls.
- AbbVie claims the price controls violate constitutional rights and seek to end them.
AbbVie initiated legal action against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday, contesting a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services decision to apply price controls to Botox.
The complaint, filed in a Washington, D.C. federal court, asserts that Congress explicitly excluded certain Medicare-covered medications, including plasma-derived products like Botox, from price controls when passing the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
AbbVie states that one-third of Botox is human serum albumin, a plasma-derived component critical for its safety and efficacy. The drugmaker argues that forcing the sale of Botox at "confiscatory prices" violates its constitutional rights under the First and Fifth Amendments.
The company seeks to overturn the price controls, citing potential "ruinous" tax liabilities and exclusion from federal programs if it complies. Botox contributed over 10% to AbbVie's $61.16 billion in revenue last year.
