How Effective and What is the Humira Cost Versus Benefit

ByShaun Snapp

Executive Summary

  • Humira is taken for autoimmune disorders.
  • What was never done with Humira’s FDA approval was to evaluate any cost-benefit for this drug.

Introduction

Humira has significant side effects for improvement against autoimmune diseases. It also comes high costs and exaggerated benefits. This article will begin by discussing its financial costs and then move into covering its cost-benefit relationship.

The Humira Cost

Humira is an expensive drug. The Humira cost is around $78,000 per year.

Observe this pricing from GoodRX at basically $7,000 for 2 pens of Humira. 

How Humira Cost is Kept So High

This very high Humira cost is explained in the following video.

This video points out that although Humira cost is very high, it should not even be on patent any longer and is an example of patent abuse. Humira’s original patent expired in 2016. Because other countries, like in Europe do not accept this nonsense. For this reason, the same Humira drug is sold for a fraction of the cost of what it is sold for in the US in Europe. 

This video describes the tricks that Humira’s manufacturer, AbbVie, engaged in to keep Humira cost high. Before the covid vaccines were introduced, having made over $200 billion in revenue — it was the most financially successful drug of all time. 

This video also explains that if other drugs extract value the way that AbbVie did with Humira, the entire medical system in the US would be completely unsustainable.

How Effective is Humira Versus Autoimmune Diseases?

This is covered in the article by Medical News Today.

Autoimmune Disease #1: Effectiveness For Ulcerative Colitis

Effectiveness for ulcerative colitis
Humira was studied in adults with moderate to severe UC that was active. These people had either tried or were currently taking other drugs for UC called immunosuppressants.

In clinical studies, researchers wanted to see if Humira was better than a placebo at causing symptoms to go into remission. In one study, 18.5% of people who took Humira had symptom remission after 8 weeks, compared with 9.2% of people who took a placebo.

This is an improvement of (18.5-9.2) or 9.3 percentage points.

A similar study found that 16.5% of people who took Humira had symptom remission after 8 weeks, compared with 9.3% of people who took a placebo. At 52 weeks, 8.5% of people who took Humira were still in symptom remission, compared with 4.1% of people who took a placebo.

This is a 7.2 percentage point and 4.4% percentage point improvement, respectively.

Study results in children

Humira was studied in children ages 5 years and older with moderate to severe UC that was active. The children had already tried or were currently taking certain other drugs for UC. These drugs included corticosteroids, an immunomodulator, or a TNF blocker.

In clinical studies, researchers looked at whether certain dosages of Humira were better than a placebo at causing remission of UC symptoms. After 8 weeks of treatment, 60% of children who took the recommended dosage of Humira experienced remission. Also, 43% of children who took a lower Humira dosage experienced remission of their symptoms.

This is a 17 percentage point improvement.

After a total of 52 weeks of treatment, 45% of children who took the recommended Humira dosage experienced remission of their UC symptoms. This is compared to 29% of children who took a lower Humira dosage, and 33% of children who took a placebo.

This is a 12% percentage point improvement versus the placebo.

Autoimmune Disease #2: Effectiveness For Crohn’s Disease

In clinical studies, people with CD were treated with either Humira (at various doses) or a placebo. Researchers found that 21% to 36% of people who took Humira had a CD remission by week 4. This is compared with 7% to 12% of people who took a placebo.