Richard Gonzalez on IRA negotiations
From Abbvie (NYSE: ABBV) - Q4 2023 Earnings Call · · Business Presentations
“We have received the initial offer on Imbruvica recently. Because none of us have any experience with this we don't know exactly how that process will proceed. There will be some back and forth between the manufacturer and CMS. CMS has indicated that they'll have the final price by September 1st.”
On , Richard Gonzalez, Executive Chairman at AbbVie Inc, spoke about IRA negotiations during Abbvie (NYSE: ABBV) - Q4 2023 Earnings Call on Business Presentations.
About Richard Gonzalez
Richard Gonzalez, executive chairman of AbbVie, has been involved in discussions regarding the company's financial performance and drug pricing. On the company's Q4 2023 earnings call, Gonzalez stated that AbbVie's growth platform, excluding Humira, delivered full-year sales growth of more than 8% and that the company expects a return to robust growth in 2025. He also noted that AbbVie had received an initial offer on the cancer drug Imbruvica as part of a pricing process by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), with a final price expected by September 1, 2024. Gonzalez has previously defended the company's patenting practices, stating that AbbVie patents innovation it believes is meaningful, and has acknowledged that the company spends about $4 billion annually on marketing and advertising. Gonzalez has also faced scrutiny from lawmakers regarding drug pricing and patent strategies. In a 2021 congressional hearing, Representative Katie Porter questioned him about AbbVie's price increases for Imbruvica and the company's spending on stock buybacks and dividends, which Gonzalez said totaled $13 billion in buybacks and $50 billion in dividends from 2013 to 2018. In another hearing, Representative Peter Welch questioned Gonzalez about AbbVie's use of product enhancements to extend patent protection, which Gonzalez said can result in maintaining pricing power. Gonzalez has also been questioned about his knowledge of the inventor of Humira, telling Representative Ro Khanna that he did not know who invented the drug, which Khanna noted was Nobel laureate Gregory Winter.