Humira isn’t going anywhere yet. And its successors are coming along nicely, too.
On Thursday, AbbVie shared second-quarter financial results that show its cornerstone immunology medication eroded more slowly than expected. Combined with revenue growth from its next two autoimmune blockbusters, Skyrizi and Rinvoq, the Chicago-area company said sales rose 4.3% year-over-year to $14.4 billion.
The company upped its guidance on full-year earnings per share by 10 cents, to a new range of $10.71 to $10.91. (It also beat first-quarter expectations back in April.) Investors responded warmly, sending the shares $ABBV up 4% on Thursday.
“As we begin this new chapter, nearly every aspect of AbbVie’s business is performing at or above our expectations. We are demonstrating a rapid return to revenue growth,” CEO Rob Michael, who took over the role this month, said on Thursday morning’s call with investors. Michael said Humira accounts for less than 20% of AbbVie’s total sales and that the non-Humira portfolio will beat its full-year sales guidance by “more than $1 billion.”
It’s a well-worn story at this point for Humira and AbbVie. Although the drug has been the backbone of AbbVie’s sales, politicians have used it as an example of how pharma companies use patenting tactics and deals with payers to block cheaper competitors.
Following a quarters-long pickup from biosimilars, AbbVie’s global Humira sales slid 29.8% year over year to $2.81 billion. But quarter over quarter, Humira reeled in about $550 million more than the first three months of this year.
Jeffrey Stewart“We continue to anticipate that Humira will maintain parity access to biosimilars for a significant majority of patient lives this year,” commercial chief Jeffrey Stewart said on the earnings call.
Skyrizi and Rinvoq are the company’s major follow-up blockbusters in immunology. The drugs continued their rise by growing 44.8% and 55.8% to $2.7 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively. AbbVie had previously updated its 2027 guidance for combined sales of the two drugs by $6 billion.
In April, CVS Caremark removed brand-name Humira from its major national formularies and exclusively covered the biosimilar Hyrimoz. The move has cut into Humira’s place in the market, but the drug still dominates.
“One trend that we are watching very closely is the switching from the Humira molecule to new mechanisms,” Michael said. “We are starting to see an inflection that is accruing to new mechanisms like Skyrizi and Rinvoq, and it makes sense. Doctors that are reevaluating the patients in their practice are likely looking at more than just the patients that are covered by CVS.
“To the extent that trend continues, it would represent a downside for Humira and an upside for Skyrizi and Rinvoq, which is a very good long-term trade-off for us,” Michael continued.
‘Early-stage’ hunting
The company has been going through a period of significant change. Michael took over from longtime CEO Rick Gonzalez, while CSO Tom Hudson announced his retirement earlier this month and has been replaced by chief medical officer Roopal Thakkar.
AbbVie will also have to find a way to bounce back from a twice-rejected Parkinson’s therapy. The company is working with the FDA to “get clarity on timelines,” Thakkar said on the analyst call.
To further shore up its pipeline and any concerns about Humira, AbbVie has been active on the business development front in recent quarters, buying up biotechs in antibody-drug conjugates, neuroscience and the hot field of immunology and inflammation. And it’s also inked multiple pacts, including a TL1A deal with FutureGen and a neuroplastogens tie-up with Gilgamesh, among others.
It will likely continue forging pacts for “early-stage assets that can drive growth in the next decade,” Michael said on Thursday’s quarterly call.
“You’ve seen us execute nearly a dozen deals this year along those lines,” the CEO said. “These include new mechanisms in immunology that can combine with Skyrizi or Rinvoq, or be pursued as monotherapies. We’ve also added new platforms, including multispecifics that have applicability in immunology and oncology.”
AbbVie also expects its $8.7 billion Cerevel deal to close “as early as next week,” Michael said Thursday. Meanwhile, it offloaded cystic fibrosis programs to Sionna Therapeutics this summer.