Big Pharma Earnings Watch: Abbvie

Brand Name Drug Giant Completes Sweep of Big Pharma Companies Who Beat Expectations After Hiking Prices

Earnings reports for the third quarter of the year provide the latest evidence that Big Pharma continues to bank record profits while price-gouging American patients. Today, brand name drug giant AbbVie announced better than expected earnings after a year of continued price hikes, completing a trend from all 12 of the world’s largest brand name drug makers.

• AbbVie reported revenue of $8.48 billion, beating Wall Street expectations.
• The company lifted its profit forecast this quarter thanks to strong demand for cancer drug Imbruvica.
• Blockbuster arthritis drug Humira raked in $4.9 billion for the company.
• Over the past year, AbbVie has beat estimates three times.

• This year alone, AbbVie has raised prices 48 times.
• AbbVie’s Humira is the world’s top-selling drug by sales. The. company has hiked its price by an average of 6.2 percent this year. Last year, sales topped $20 billion – more than the entire National Football League (NFL) made last season. Between 2012 and 2018, the price of Humira has increased nearly 100 percent from $19,000 to $38,000.
• An analysis from the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) showed that AbbVie increased the price of its best-selling rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira by 15.9% from 2017 to 2018 with no evidence that the drug had been improved.
• AbbVie announced more price hikes in July 2019.