Besins Healthcare

Besins Healthcare is a privately held, fifth-generation family-owned multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Monaco. Founded in 1885 in Paris, Besins Healthcare focuses on transdermal delivery technology treatments and has products available in 100 countries.

The company specializes in manufacturing and developing drugs for the treatment of gynecological, fertility, and obstetrical conditions as well as androgen deficiencies. Besins Healthcare has three subsidiaries: BHR Pharma, LLC, Ascend Therapeutics and Pure Matters.

Ascend Therapeutics is involved in the research and development of transdermal drugs that are applied to the skin as a gel to treat chronic conditions such as severe breast pain for pre-menopausal women, and low testosterone levels for older men.

Early years
Besins Healthcare was founded in 1885 by Abel Besins and Joseph Lebeau.

Recent developments
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the company expanded its portfolio to include treatments for a variety of hormonal conditions.

AG Rosenblum Sues Pharmaceutical Giants AbbVie and Besins
In November 2022, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum sued AbbVie, Abbott Laboratories, Unimed Pharmaceuticals. The lawsuit alleges that the four pharmaceutical companies, which held the exclusive patent for brand-name AndroGel, filed baseless lawsuits to monopolize the market and prevent competitors from entering, which resulted in much higher prices.

Federal Trade Commission v. AbbVie
The FTC filed a complaint in federal district court in September 2014 charging that AbbVie Inc. and its partner Besins Healthcare Inc. illegally blocked American consumers’ access to lower-cost alternatives to Androgel by filing baseless patent infringement lawsuits against potential generic competitors. In a June 2018 decision, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled that sham litigation was used to create a monopoly.