Shares of pharmaceutical firm AbbVie were down on Friday, following the company's expectation of plummeting sales for their prominent arthritis drug, Humira, due to increased competition from similar drugs, referred to as biosimilars. Despite being the erstwhile top-selling drug globally, Humira lost its exclusivity last year leading to nine biosimilars entering the US market, posing significant competition.
During the company's first quarter earnings call, it was stated that it is anticipated for Humira sales to further drop by 32% in the present quarter, following a significant 35.9% decline in the first three months of the year. The adverse news regarding Humira superseded AbbVie’s better-than-expected results and heightened guidance.
Despite these challenges, AbbVie posted a healthy adjusted profit of $2.31 per share and a slight revenue increase of 0.7% to $12.31 billion, surpassing estimates. Two other treatments from AbbVie, Skyrizi indicated for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis and Rinvoq for rheumatoid arthritis, recorded notable sales. Skyrizi sales rose by 47.6% to $2 billion, while Rinvoq exhibited a 59.3% leap in sales to $1.09 billion.
Consequently, AbbVie updated its full-year earnings per share (EPS) prediction to a range of $11.13 to $11.33 from the earlier forecast of $10.97 to $11.17. Nevertheless, AbbVie shares slid by 4.6% to $159.55 roughly one hour prior to market close, and shifted to negative territory for 2024.