Big Pharma Earnings Watch: AbbVie and Sanofi

Brand Name Drug Makers Continue to Surpass Q2 Forecasts After Hiking Prices

Pharmaceutical giants AbbVie and Sanofi kept the good times rolling for Big Pharma on Friday and Monday, with both besting earnings forecasts and raising outlooks for the remainder of the year.

AbbVie reported $8.2 billion in sales, beating estimates of $8.1 billion as the company continues to hike prices on its products. Best-selling drug Humira sales reached $4.9 billion in Q2 with U.S. sales increasing 7.7 percent.

• AbbVie’s Humira is the world’s top-selling drug by sales. 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. But that didn’t stop AbbVie from jacking up the price again. The company increased the list price of the drug by 6.2 percent in January.

• AbbVie announced more price hikes would come in July 2019.

And while price-gouging American patients is keeping the gravy train going for AbbVie, international sales numbers demonstrate how increased competition in the marketplace is working elsewhere to lower prices.

International sales of Humira dipped 32.5 percent due to biosimilar competition after AbbVie’s patent in Europe expired last year.

Meanwhile, Sanofi, one of the three biggest global manufacturers of insulin, reported a nearly four percent increase in sales, raking in $9.66 billion.

French-based Sanofi is also no stranger to price-gouging patients:

• Sanofi increased list prices on almost half of its prescription drugs last year – 35 out of 76 – by an average of 4.6 percent.

• Dupixent was one of the primary sales drivers for the company in Q2. Sales rose a whopping 168 percent, generating $551.80 million for the company in Q2. Last year, Sanofi raised the price of Dupixent by three percent.

• In January, Sanofi jacked up the price of insulin between 4.4 and 5.2 percent.

• Sanofi was also among the Big Pharma giants that announced new price hikes in July 2019.

AbbVie and Sanofi beating their earnings forecasts in the second quarter continues a trend across the industry. Other pharmaceutical giants who have beat earnings expectations in the second quarter of 2019 include Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Johnson & Johnson.

Earnings from Pfizer, Amgen, Eli Lilly and Merck will be released tomorrow.