A mAb for all seasons: B-I teams with GoodRx to distribute Humira biosimilar

Boehringer Ingelheim and GoodRx announced a patient-affordability initiative Thursday to provide citrate-free adalimumab to patients in the US at a 92% discount compared with Abbvie’s Humira originator product. 

The drug will be produced at Boehringer’s highly automated facility in Fremont, California. The US-based production will ease distribution to the 70,000 US retail pharmacies that can dispense the product to patients. 

The biosimilar – available under the Cyltezo product name – is used to treat the signs and symptoms of autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, psoriatic arthritis, and ulcerative colitis. It is an FDA-approved interchangeable biosimilar to Humira, which has a list price of about $7,299 for two 40-mg kits. 

A biosimilar is a biologic medicine that is developed to be highly similar to an approved reference biologic, with no clinically meaningful differences in terms of safety, potency, and purity. The Boehringer product will be available for $550 per two pack through GoodRx. 

GoodRx is a prescription savings platform that enables patients to purchase medicines at more affordable prices. Taylor Pepe, a spokesperson from Boehringer Ingelheim, told BioProcess Insider that the company’s partnership with GoodRx enables the firm to put patients first. “We want to offer flexibility in our biosimilar options to help meet a variety of needs, including high- and low-concentration, citrate-free versions of both Cyltezo and unbranded adalimumab.” He said that Boehringer’s partnership with GoodRx does not have any impact on its manufacturing of the product.  

“The biosimilar manufacturing process is inherently complex and requires a high degree of technical innovation and regulatory expertise,” Pepe said. He credited Boehringer’s 35+ years of experience in biologic manufacturing as enabling the company to produce enough adalimumab to meet demand. 

“For over a decade, GoodRx has been working to help reduce the costs of medications for patients, and we recognize the critical need for ensuring biosimilars are affordable to all,” said Dorothy Gemmell, chief commercial officer at GoodRx. “We're excited to leverage the reach and scale of the GoodRx platform to help address this access gap and make adalimumab more accessible to patients.” 

Although the FDA has approved Cyltezo (50 mg/mL) as an interchangeable biosimilar, it has not yet done so with the 100 mg/mL dose.