Drugs From AbbVie Replace Older, Once-Best-Selling Ones

(CTN News) – The AbbVie company raised its full-year profit guidance today, despite sales of its flagship product continuing to decline throughout the year.

According to AbbVie’s latest quarterly earnings report, the company has raised its guidance for annual profits to be between $11.13 and $11.33 per share, up from its previous forecast of $10.97 to $11.17 per share.

The pharma giant’s best-selling drug Humira, the world’s most popular immunosuppressant, has seen its sales fall 9% to $2.3 billion in the previous three months ending March 31. Wall Street had expected $2.2 billion for this quarter, but this figure exceeded it.

It is no secret that AbbVie reaped the benefits of Humira, which was the best-selling drug in the world for more than a decade as a treatment for arthritis and other autoimmune conditions.

A biosimilar will be able to enter the market for much cheaper than the original drug in 2023, since the drug’s exclusive rights will have expired in 2023. As a result, in 2023 Humira will lose its title to Merck’s blockbuster cancer drug, Keytruda, following a 12-month trial.

As a result, Humira’s losses have been offset by the company’s newer drugs that are helping offset its Humira losses.

As the news reports, AbbVie’s first quarter results were well ahead of expectations, driven by the excellent performance from its ex-Humira growth platform, according to the company’s president and chief operating officer Robert A. Michael. In light of the strong results that we have achieved and the significant momentum we have developed, we are raising our full-year outlook.” Michael will be succeeding Richard A. Gonzalez as CEO in July.

During the first quarter of 2024, sales of Skyrizi, a treatment for plaque psoriasis that was launched in 2019, increased by 45% year over year, reaching $2 billion. There was a 48% increase in sales of Rinqov, a treatment for moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, which soared to $1.1 billion in 2017.

By the numbers: AbbVie’s first quarter results

This is the percentage by which AbbVie’s net income fell to $4.1 billion in the three months ending March 31, a decrease of 6% from $4.3 billion in the same period last year.

1%: Amount by which the company’s total sales increased from $12.2 billion to $12.3 billion in its first quarter year over year.

FactSet says that AbbVie earned $2.31 per share in the quarter, beating analysts’ expectations of $2.20 per share.

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