Written by Leroy Leo and Christy Santosh
(Reuters) – AbbVie expects a decline in sales of its blockbuster arthritis drug Humira to worsen due to recent changes in U.S. pharmacy benefits managers and patients moving to other drugs.
The company's stock fell nearly 5% in afternoon trading Friday after the company said it expected U.S. sales of Humira to fall 32% in the second quarter.
AbbVie investors have been closely monitoring sales of Humira, the world's best-selling drug, until it lost exclusivity last year and nine biosimilars were launched in the United States.
The company said in February that it expected U.S. sales to decline 36% this year.
“We know that not all Humira formulations are transitioning to biosimilars,” Chief Commercial Officer Jeffrey Stewart said on an investor call.
He said data shows patients are moving to other drugs, including AbbVie's new immunotherapy drugs Skyridi and Rinvoke.
The company has so far managed to retain a large portion of the Humira market, even though sales of the drug fell nearly 36% in the quarter, largely due to price competition in the United States.
Health insurance company Cigna announced Thursday that it plans to use its specialty pharmacy business to offer similar copies of Humira to eligible patients in the United States at no out-of-pocket cost starting in June.
“There seems to be a lot of concern about the impact of the Humira biosimilar,” said Evan Sagerman, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets. “Cigna's plans could hurt AbbVie's,” he said, adding that Cigna's plans could hurt AbbVie's. This year's Humira volume.
AbbVie's first-quarter Humira sales were $2.27 billion, roughly in line with expectations of $2.28 billion. Pharmaceutical companies and their investors have focused on sales of Skyrizi and Rinvoq to offset sales declines from Humira.
The company on Friday raised its full-year adjusted earnings forecast to $11.13 to $11.33 per share from $10.97 to $11.17. In addition, strong sales of Skyridi and the anti-cancer drug Imbruvica also exceeded first-quarter profit expectations. Skyrizi's sales were $2.01 billion, exceeding expectations of $1.94 billion, and Rinvok's sales were $1.09 billion, slightly above expectations of $1.06 billion.
AbbVie posted adjusted earnings of $2.31 per share, beating expectations of $2.23 per share.
(Reporting by Leroy Leo and Christy Santosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Shamnath)
