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AbbVie Inc. plans to lean financially on increasing sales for several drugs in its stable, such as its Skyrizi medicine, to counter the decline in sales of Humira, as other manufacturers now are allowed to sell near-identical products to the arthritis drug.
The locally based drug giant's outlook came as it reported first-quarter results Friday that bested analysts’ expectations, including reporting increased sales of its Skyrizi and Rinvoq drugs.
AbbVie (Nasdaq: ABBV) posted first-quarter net revenue of $12.3 billion, up slightly from a year earlier. Its adjusted earnings per share was down slightly, from $2.46 a year earlier to $2.31.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters First Call expected revenue of $11.9 billion and earnings of $2.23 per share.
The company said that while Humira quarterly sales fell about 36% from a year earlier, to $2.27 billion, sales of Skyrizi rose 48% to $2 billion, and Rinvoq quarterly sales rose 59% to more than $1 billion.
"First-quarter results were well ahead of our expectations, driven by excellent performance from our ex-Humira growth platform. Based on our strong results and significant momentum, we are raising our full-year outlook,” said Robert Michael, AbbVie president and chief operating officer, in a statement.
AbbVie announced in February that Michael will succeed CEO Richard Gonzalez in that role on July 1. Gonzalez has been CEO of AbbVie since January 2013, when the company was spun off from health-care company Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT).
The sales increases of Skyrizi and Rinvoq saw AbbVie raise its fiscal 2024 earnings guidance from a range of $10.97 to $11.17 per share to a range of $11.13 to $11.33 per share.
AbbVie lost its exclusivity to sell Humira last year, and rival drugmakers began selling near-identical products to Humira, which earned AbbVie more than $135 billion in U.S. sales over the past 20 years.
Skyrizi is a treatment for adults with moderate to severely active Crohn's disease, or people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Rinvoq aims to treat rheumatoid arthritis, PsA and axial spondyloarthritis.
Ben Miller can be reached at bwmiller@bizjournals.com
