1. A thread on how AbbVie, the manufacturer of Humira, abuses the patent system and an antitrust lawsuit challenging AbbVie's misconduct

2. Humira is a biologic medication used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune conditions. It is the world’s best-selling drug, because it costs about $38,000 per patient per year.

3. Ahead of the main exclusivity on Humira expiring in 2014, AbbVie indiscriminately sought patents pertaining to Humira in order to perpetuate its monopoly, even though Humira had been on the market since 2002

4. @IMAKglobal showed that AbbVie built a thicket of 247 patents and pending patents covering Humira https://www.i-mak.org/resources/overpatented-overpriced-special-humira-edition/

5. Regardless of whether most of these patents are valid and enforceable, the effect of this patent thicket is to deter generic competition and potentially grant AbbVie an additional 39 years of monopoly protection for Humira

6. Through this scorched earth patenting policy, AbbVie extended its government-granted monopoly on Humira without contributing any genuine invention to the public

7. Indiscriminate patenting is a common and favored tactic of pharma cos. See this report by @ IMAKglobal https://www.i-mak.org/overpatented-overpriced-excessive-pharmaceutical-patenting-extending-monopolies-driving-drug-prices/

8. Last year, a class of unions and other health care payors filed an antitrust suit against AbbVie, alleging that its patenting strategy constitutes illegal monopolization. The district court dismissed their suit in June.

9. A question on appeal is whether AbbVie’s patent filings and lawsuits are protected by the Noerr-Pennington doctrine, which generally allows the public to petition the government without risk of antitrust liability

10. This doctrine is not absolute. Corporations cannot misuse government process and hide behind Noerr-Pennington. For instance, the fraudulent procurement of a patent can be illegal monopolization under the Sherman Act.

11. In an amicus brief filed yesterday, @openmarkets argued that AbbVie’s flurry of patent filings, made without consideration of the underlying merits, is not protected by Noerr-Pennington https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/publications/open-markets-institute-files-amicus-brief-supporting-antitrust-lawsuit-on-humira-worlds-top-selling-drug

12. This abuse of government process is an unfair form of competition that, as the Supreme Court wrote in 1972, “build[s] up one empire and destroy[s] another.”

13. Fixing patent law is essential for tackling prescription drug monopolies and runaway drug prices. But antitrust law can and should also punish pharma corporations that abuse the patent system to obtain unjustified monopolies.