UnitedHealth to Remove Humira from Reimbursement Lists

UnitedHealth Group will exclude AbbVie's Humira from some reimbursement lists starting January 1, 2025, promoting lower-cost biosimilars instead. This move aligns with similar decisions by other major pharmacy benefit managers in the U.S.

Sources (2)

Open Article

9/11/2024

[0]Benzinga

UnitedHealth Follows Competitors, Replaces Humira with Lower-Cost Biosimilars - UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH)

9/10/2024

[1]Reuters

UnitedHealth to remove AbbVie's Humira from some US drug reimbursement lists next year

Score	Value
Scale	6
Novelty	5
Positivity	6
Reliability	8
Actionability	4
Society	7
Journalism	4

Highlights

UnitedHealth Group will remove AbbVie's Humira from some of its preferred drug reimbursement lists starting January 1, 2025.
UnitedHealth will recommend lower-cost biosimilar versions of Humira, including Amgen's Amjevita.
This decision follows similar actions by Cigna and CVS Health, which also plan to remove Humira from their lists in 2025.
The U.S. market share for Humira biosimilars has increased to nearly 20% as of now.
The FDA is expected to designate the preferred biosimilars as interchangeable with Humira in 2025.

Perspectives

Some industry observers express concern that the actions of pharmacy benefit managers like UnitedHealth may lead to increased drug costs and limit patient access to original medications, despite the promotion of biosimilars. [1][2]
Others argue that the shift towards biosimilars will ultimately benefit the healthcare system by reducing costs and increasing access to medications for patients. [1][2]