Abbott, AbbVie Pause Some Russian Business Over Ukraine Invasion

NORTH CHICAGO, IL — Lake County-based medical and pharmaceutical companies Abbott Laboratories and AbbVie on Tuesday announced the pause of some of their operations in Russia.

Abbott, which has had a presence in Russia since the late 1970s, has suspended all non-essential business in the country. According to a statement from the company, that means no new advertising, business development or investments there.

AbbVie, the research and pharmaceutical company spur off from Abbott in 2013, has temporarily suspended operations for all "aesthetics products" in the country, company officials said.

Representatives of both companies have also announced donations to humanitarian causes connected with the conflict.

On March 4, Abbott pledged $2 million to organizations including International Medical Corps, Americares and Project HOPE. On Monday, company officials announced it has begun donating health care products to Ukrainians in Ukraine and in Poland through the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and non-governmental organizations.

"Our first priority is for the safety and wellbeing of the hundreds of employees we have in Ukraine," Abbott representatives said in a statement. "We are in regular contact with our colleagues in Ukraine, and thankfully they are all accounted for at this time."

On Tuesday, AbbVie company officials announced it is donating $1 million to nonprofit partners for medical care and supplies to Ukraine and refugees from the country, doubling its foundation's employee donation-matching and donating essential medicines to disaster relief groups and the Ukrainian government. The company will also provide relief and financial support as needed to its Ukrainian employees and their immediate families.

Both publicly traded local firms issued statements saying they would continue to provide essential medical products to Russia.

"As a healthcare company we have an important purpose, which is to preserve and restore health and save lives. We do this in more than 160 countries. Healthcare products including food, medicine and medical products are generally exempt from sanctions for humanitarian reasons. In Russia, where Abbott provides healthcare products including life-sustaining medicines for cancer and organ function, we are suspending non-essential business activity in the country, including all new investments, business development and advertising," Abbott's said

"As a global biopharmaceutical company," AbbVie representatives said, "we have a responsibility to patients who depend on our medicines. We are committed to ensuring our patients in Ukraine, Russia, and throughout the region continue to have access to our essential and life-saving medicines."

Back in 2010, then-Prime Minister Vladamir Putin introduced changes to Russian law that required American and European drugmakers to locate their production inside Russia if they wanted to sell their products there, Kaiser Health News reported.

In December 2014, several months after Putin occupied and annexed the Crimean Peninsula and sent military forces into Eastern Ukraine, Abbott announced it had completed the $305 million purchase of Veropharm, one of Russia's top manufacturers of generic drugs. As of 2015, Abbott had three manufacturing facilities and about 3,500 employees in Russia. The company has announced expanded operations since then.

As of 2018, Abbott was among the top five companies in Russia for branded generic drugs, Reuters reported. The company currently manufactures and sells medicines in Russia for cancer treatment, pancreatic and liver issues and women's health, according to Kaiser Health News.

AbbVie does not have any manufacturing plants in Russia or Ukraine, according to the company.

About 43 percent of AbbVie's revenue in 2020 came from sales of the drug Humira, which is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease. The company also owns the wrinkle treatment Botox.

Medicine and medical equipment have a humanitarian exemption from sanctions placed on Russia following its military's nearly three-week-old invasion of neighboring Ukraine, according to Reuters, which reported Eli Lilly, Norvartis, Pfizer and Bayer also announced the suspension of non-essential activities while pledging to continue supplying essential medicines.