AbbVie’s Humira missed Wall Street’s expectations in the third quarter but Skyrizi and Rinvoq’s continuing outperformance demonstrated the overall strength of its immunology franchise.
Despite the continued biosimilar erosion on Humira sales, AbbVie exceeded analyst expectations in its third-quarter earnings report on Wednesday, buoyed by the strong growth of its other immunology assets.
AbbVie’s revenue jumped 3.8% in Q3 bringing in $14.46 billion, which was 1% ahead of the consensus forecast of $14.3 billion. The company reported adjusted diluted earnings-per-share (EPS) of $3, which also beat Wall Street’s projection of $2.94.
AbbVie’s Q3 beat comes despite the steep decline in Humira sales, which cratered 37% year-over-year and dropped to $2.23 billion, compared to $3.55 billion during the same period last year. In an investor call on Wednesday, CCO Jeffrey Stuart attributed the company’s shrinking Humira business to its loss of exclusivity and “biosimilar competition,” particularly in the U.S.
Still, company executives were optimistic about its immunology unit on the call, with AbbVie CEO Robert Michael saying that he is “extremely pleased” with the performance of the ex-Humira platform. “AbbVie’s diversified portfolio delivered sales that were $260 million above our expectations, Michael said, noting that “our ex-Humira platform drove this overachievement.”
Skyrizi, indicated for plaque psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis and which AbbVie has positioned as a successor to Humira, surged 50.8% in Q3 with $3.2 billion in net revenue—surpassing both the analyst consensus. Rinvoq, an oral JAK inhibitor approved for ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and other immune-mediated diseases, grew 45.3% in the quarter with $1.17 billion in sales.
William Blair analyst Myles Minter in an investor note wrote that AbbVie’s Q3 beat “was mainly driven by continued strength of Skyrizi and Rinvoq,” adding that AbbVIe is likely looking at “strong and durable growth profile over the coming years thanks to its strong growth platform.”
Regarding the biosimilar challenge to Humira, Minter noted that “AbbVie has managed the erosion well,” which in turn will give investors “enough visibility to get comfortable with the strong growth outlook for AbbVie over the near and long term.”
Guggenheim Partners analyst Vamil Divan pointed to AbbVie’s cancer products Imbruvica and Venclexta, which “performed better than the Street expected.” Venclexta saw nearly 15% year-over-year growth and brought in $677 million in Q3, while Imbruvica—despite earning $828 million—was hit with an 8.8% decline in sales.
Looking at AbbVie’s pipeline, Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger flagged an upcoming readout for emraclidine, a potentially best-in-class next-generation anti-psychotic drug being developed for schizophrenia. Data from two Phase II studies—EMPOWER-1 and EMPOWER-2—are expected by the end of the year. Risinger also called out two “Alzheimer’s wildcards,” ABBV-552 and AL002, both of which are in Phase II.
