In a bid to take advantage of Humira’s slow loss of market share, Boehringer Ingelheim is offering its biosimilar at a 92% discount exclusively to patients who buy the product on GoodRx.
Boehringer Ingelheim on Thursday announced that it has launched a patient affordability initiative in partnership with prescription savings platform GoodRx to offer its Humira (adalimumab) biosimilar, Adalimumab-adbm, at a steep discount relative to the branded reference product.
Both the high- and low-concentration formulations of Adalimumab-adbm—available either as a pre-filled syringe or an autoinjector—will go for $550 per two-pack on GoodRx, representing a 92% discount from Humira’s list cost. This price is only available through GoodRx.
“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,” Chris Marsh, senior vice president of Value and Access at Boehringer Ingelheim, said in a statement.
The GoodRx partnership is a “significant step in addressing access and affordability” of medications “in one of the largest therapeutic categories with a high cost burden for patients,” according to the pharma’s announcement. The exclusive GoodRx pricing took effect Thursday.
First approved by the FDA in October 2017 for multiple chronic inflammatory diseases, Adalimumab-adbm is also sold under the brand name Cyltezo. It carries the FDA’s interchangeability designation, meaning it can be used in place of the reference product without needing to change a patient’s prescription. In May 2024, the FDA signed off on a high-concentration and citrate-free version of Cyltezo, which could make injections less frequent and less painful.
Boehringer Ingelheim is also offering an unbranded version of Cyltezo at an 81% discount relative to Humira’s price.
With Thursday’s GoodRx partnership, Boehringer Ingelheim appears to be taking advantage of the recent surge in biosimilar prescriptions and Humira’s increasingly tenuous position in the market.
In April 2024, CVS Caremark—one of the biggest pharmacy benefit managers in the country—took Humira off of its major national commercial formularies, paving the way for the biosimilar Hyrimoz, which is owned by CVS Caremark’s subsidiary Cordavis in partnership with Sandoz.
New prescriptions for Hyrimoz skyrocketed in the following weeks, jumping from around 640 in the week ending March 29 to approximately 8,300 in the week ending April 5.
Other biosimilars, however, have so far failed to capitalize on this opening. According to Samsung Bioepis’ latest biosimilar report, released earlier this month, Humira still controls 82% of the market. The biosimilar share, which grew to around 18% since March 2024, has mostly been cornered by Hyrimoz. Nine other Humira copycats—including Boehringer Ingelheim’s Cyltezo—have together captured less than 5% of the market.
