Humira Becomes A Dangerous Drug
What is Humira?
Usually doctors will give patients Humira when they are treating ailments such as arthritis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, psoriasis, and other autoimmune medical conditions. Humira is an anti-inflammatory drug that works by binding molecules, blocking them from attaching to and attacking healthy cells. This stops certain reactions that cause inflammation which is a characteristic of autoimmune diseases.
Humira’s Rise
The once best selling drug Humira came to fame after a brilliant marketing strategy. The blockbuster drug appealed to mass quantities of people due to the broad issues that it could be used to treat. It was approved to treat 9 different ailments. They also developed new formulas and new ways to administer the drug which kept extending their patents and kept increasing their profits, as the creator of the drug, Abbot already sold the drug at a high price and would increase the price twice a year. The marketing team targeted a select few doctors that practiced in the niche field for which they had been developing the drug. Sales reps reached out to rheumatologists and gastroenterologists to offer the drug to most of their patients, covering more ground with fewer contacts.
Humira Becomes a Dangerous Drug
In 2008 the FDA ( The Food and Drug Administration) recognized and warned Abbott that their successful drug has serious adverse side effects that went unrecognized by doctors. Some of these side effects were fungal infections, optic neuritis, peripheral neuropathy, leukemia, hepatosplenic T cell lymphoma. Some of these untreated side effects have led to death in patients. Abbot waited two years before they sent letters to doctors informing them of these dangerous side effects.
Lawsuits Against Humira
Besides being sued by the California Department of Insurance for bribing doctors with money and services, Humira is facing suits against them due to the side effects this dangerous drug can cause. Delores Tiezt was one of the first people to sue Abbott over their dangerous drug Humira. She took Humira for only seven months before having serious side effects as she entered the hospital in May 2010 with a histoplasmosis infection. She went on to sue Abbott and attorneys for Tietz claim that despite an FDA alert in 2008, the company failed to send warning letters directly to physicians until May 17, 2010 — 10 days after Tietz entered the hospital with an infection. Tiezt was unable to see the case through herself as she unfortunately passed in 2013, and her husband then took over the case. On May 9, 2013, a Cook County jury found Abbott Laboratories negligent and ordered the company to pay $2.2 million to Milton Tietz on behalf of his wife.
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