AbbVie Q1 Earnings to Shine a Light on Humira Patent Loss

AbbVie (ABBV), the maker of the best-selling drug of the 21st century, will probably say earnings plummeted in the first quarter after it lost the exclusive right to market Humira, its blockbuster biologic.

AbbvVie is expected to report net income fell 39% year-over-year to $2.72 billion, or $1.55 per share, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. Revenue probably dropped almost 10% to $12.23 billion. AbbVie reports results before markets open Thursday.

AbbVie lost patent protection on its star drug adalimumab, branded as Humira, in January. Humira was the world’s top-selling drug in 2022, with sales of $21.2 billion. Since being approved by the FDA in 2002, Humira has generated more than $200 billion in revenue for AbbVie, making it one of the best-selling drugs of all time. Management expects losing the exclusive rights to market adalimumab would cause a 37% decline in sales of Humira, a drug that accounted for 37% of the company’s revenue in 2022.

In 2019, with Humira’s patent expiration nearing, AbbVie launched two new drugs targeting autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, Skyrizi and Rinvoq. Skyrizi sales totaled $1.58 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, a 76% increase over the year before. Rinvoq sales rose almost 50% to $770 million over the same period.

“We have a solid foundation which will allow us to absorb the U.S. Humira loss of exclusivity, return to strong top-line growth in 2025 and drive top-tier financial performance over the long term,” said CEO, Richard A. Gonzalez, in AbbVie’s fourth-quarter earnings release.

AbbVie stock has returned just over 3% year-to-date, outperforming the broader healthcare sector, which is flat for the year.