Abbott sued on claim Humira caused nerve damage

Abbott Laboratories was sued on claims that its top-selling drug Humira caused permanent nerve damage in the feet of a Montana woman who took it for Crohn's disease.

Two doctors who treated Kara Mae Pletan at the Mayo Clinic in 2008 said the nerve damage in her feet “was most likely due to Humira,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed today in state court in Chicago, near the company's headquarters in Lake County.

The complaint also alleges Abbott knew that Humira, which had 2010 worldwide sales of $6.5 billion, could cause peripheral neuropathy before it began marketing the drug to Crohn's patients in 2007. Earlier this year, Abbott was sued by two arthritis sufferers in Texas and Massachusetts who claim Humira gave them cancer.

“Abbott has downplayed the risk of side effects, including the very real risk of permanent neuropathy,” Andy Vickery, Pletan's lawyer, said in an e-mail.

Abbott initially sold Humira in 2003 as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration now approves Humira for the treatment of five additional autoimmune diseases, including Crohn's.

Humira is expected to outsell Roche Holding AG's Avastin cancer medicine by 2016 to become the world's most lucrative drug, according to a May 2010 forecast by research company EvaluatePharma.

“Humira has more than 12 years of clinical and safety data and best-in-class efficacy,” Adelle Infante, an Abbott spokeswoman, said in January, after the filing of the first lawsuit claiming Humira caused a Texas woman's cancer. “The therapeutic risks associated with Humira are well known and documented in the prescribing label.”

Infante didn't immediately return a call for comment today.