AbbVie Boosts 2021 Guidance as Sales Rebound From Pandemic

(Bloomberg) -- AbbVie Inc. beat expectations for second-quarter profit and revenue and raised its adjusted profit guidance for the year as sales rebounded from last year’s pandemic disruptions, helped by the purchase of Allergan.

• Adjusted earnings for the year will be $12.52 to $12.62 a share, AbbVie said, up from a previous range that topped out at $12.57.
• Revenue was $14 billion for the quarter, a 34% increase from the year-earlier period that beat Wall Street’s projection of $13.65 billion. Adjusted profit rose to $3.11 a share, beating analysts’ average expectation of $3.08.

Key Insights

• U.S. sales of Humira, the company’s blockbuster immune-suppressing drug, rose 7.1% from the year-earlier quarter to $4.26 billion. International sales fell to $811 million due to biosimilar competition that now threatens the drug domestically as six biosimilars have been cleared by the regulators for U.S. launch in 2023. Cancer therapy Imbruvica continued its upward trend with $1.38 billion in sales, a 7.2% year-over-year increase.
• The 2020 completion of AbbVie’s $63 billion purchase of Allergan, maker of the popular anti-wrinkle medicine Botox, propelled the company’s portfolio, with the newly acquired aesthetics unit raking in $1.4 billion in sales.
• Rheumatoid arthritis drug Rinvoq reported $378 million in sales. Hoped to compensate for Humira’s potential decline in the years to come, the drug has faced regulatory setbacks in recent months.

Market Reaction

• AbbVie fell 0.4% as of 9:35 a.m. in New York. The shares had climbed 11% so far this year through Thursday’s close.

Get More

• Read the release.
• See more details.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.