AbbVie (ABBV) looks to new drugs to boost sales following Humira competition - WSJ

AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) is looking towards its new drugs to replace Humiria now that its blockbuster immune-disease therapy is facing lower-priced competition, the Wall Street Journal said Monday.

The WSJ said that the drugmaker's Chief Executive, Richard Gonzalez, revealed the company is turning to a pair of next-generation successors to reload the billions of dollars in sales that will be lost.

In addition, AbbVie is betting on four drug approvals by the end of next year while also lifting a self-imposed $2 billion limit on the deal sizes it would conduct to add more products.

Gonzalez was quoted as saying in an interview that they "knew this day would come" while it built a strategy and "executed that strategy" to ensure the company could "absorb this impact, and then immediately return to growth."

It comes after Amgen began selling its near-identical version of Humira in the US last week at a list price of up to 55% below AbbVie's.

The biosimilar is a big blow for AbbVie as Humira has been among the top-selling medicines in the US, accumulating over $135 billion in US sales since its launch two decades ago.

As a result, AbbVie sales are expected to decline significantly next year, but the company is aiming to remedy the lost sales with two newer immune drugs, Skyrizi and Rinvoq, according to the WSJ.

The drugs are said to be more effective than Humira and treat the same immune conditions as Humira. In addition, the company sees them passing Humira's peak sales in four years.

Furthermore, AbbVie has an experimental Parkinson's treatment that is currently under regulatory review, as well as therapies in late-stage testing for myelofibrosis and lung cancer that could win approval next year.

By Sam Boughedda

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