The Illinois-based biopharmaceutical drugmaker Abbvie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) reported second-quarter profit and revenue beats Friday and raised its full-year forecast, led by stronger demand for top-selling drugs Humira and Imbruvica.
For the quarter ended June 2018, Abbvie posted earnings of US$2 per share on revenue of US$8.3bn. The consensus earnings estimate was US$1.98 per share on revenue of US$8.2bn. Revenue grew 19.2% on a year-over-year basis.
The biggest chunks of value for AbbVie stock come from Humira and Imbruvica. Sales of the firm’s autoimmune drug Humira – the world’s best-selling prescription medicine – surged 10% to rake in US$5.19bn in the quarter, besting consensus estimates of US$5.15bn.
The firm's other star Imbruvica logged sales which jumped 36% to US$850mln. Humira treats several forms of arthritis while Imbruvica is a cancer drug AbbVie acquired along with California-based biotech Pharmacyclics in 2015.
Despite the earnings beat, shares in AbbVie dropped 4.3% to US$89.93 in morning trade.
Humira competition raises concerns
Some of the investor concern stems from the fact that Humira will see competition from biosimilars, or copycat drugs, in Europe as soon as the end of this year and in the US in 2023, analysts say.
"This outstanding performance was driven by growth from several assets across our portfolio, including significant contributions from Humira, Imbruvica, and Mavyret,” said AbbVie Inc CEO Richard A. Gonzalez.
“Based on our performance in the first half of the year and the tremendous confidence we have in our business, we are raising our full year 2018 EPS guidance for the third time," he added.
The company said it expects 2018 earnings of US$7.76 to US$7.86 per share. The company's previous guidance was earnings of US$7.66 to US$7.76 per share. The current consensus earnings estimate is $7.80 per share for the year ending December 31, 2018.
Contact Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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