Both AbbVie and Gilead started 2024 off with solid quarterly earnings and subsequently revised their respective full year financial outlooks.
AbbVie’s net revenue inched up 0.7% to $12.3 billion, overcoming the 1.7% slide in U.S. net revenue.
The company’s net revenue from its immunology portfolio dropped nearly 4% to $5.3 billion due to increased Humira biosimilar competition. Net revenue of the drug tumbled 36% to $2.2 billion during the quarter, though revenue of Skyrizi and Rinvoq rose 47.6% and 59.3%, respectively.
The pharma giant’s earnings were released one day after AbbVie released results of a head-to-head study that showed Rinvoq was more effective in treating certain symptoms of moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis than Sanofi and Regeneron’s Dupixent in adults and adolescents.
Meanwhile, AbbVie’s oncology portfolio reported revenue of $1.5 billion, up 9%, while its neuroscience division reported revenue of $1.9 billion, up 16%. However, its aesthetics portfolio reported a 4% decrease in revenue, which totaled $1.2 billion.
“We continue to demonstrate outstanding operational execution and delivered another quarter of strong results,” AbbVie CEO Richard A. Gonzalez said in a statement. “I couldn’t be more proud of the organization we have built over the past 11 years. We’ve established an exemplary company culture, developed a productive R&D engine, delivered top-tier financial performance and made a remarkable impact on patients and the communities we serve.”
During the quarter, Gonzalez announced that he would step down from his position on July 1 and be succeeded by president and chief operating officer Robert Michael. Gonzalez will transition to become executive chairman of the board of directors.
In his final full year at the helm of AbbVie, Gonzalez received $25.7 million in total compensation. Meanwhile, Michael received $14.4 million, up from the $9.7 million he took home in 2022.
“I want to thank Rick for his exceptional leadership since AbbVie’s inception and I am deeply honored to serve as the company’s next CEO,” Michael said in a statement. “First quarter results were well ahead of our expectations, driven by excellent performance from our ex-Humira growth platform. Based on our strong results and significant momentum, we are raising our full-year outlook.”
Now, AbbVie expects its adjusted diluted EPS to be in the range of $11.13 to $11.33, up from the previous guidance of $10.97 to $11.17.
The earnings were released less than two weeks after Medincell and AbbVie announced a collaboration deal worth up to nearly $2 billion to co-develop and commercialize as many as six injectable therapies.
AbbVie also announced it will pay $48 million upfront to OSE Immunotherapeutics for an exclusive global license to develop, manufacture and commercialize the antibody, dubbed OSE-230. The French biotech is also eligible for another $665 million in milestones as well as tiered royalties on global net sales.
From the regulatory front, the Food and Drug Administration granted priority review to AbbVie for the supplemental Biologics License Application for epcoritamab-bysp.
On the marketing side, AbbVie embarked on The Case for Big Bets, a global communications and storytelling strategy to elevate the awareness of its research and development operations.
As for Gilead, quarterly revenue increased 5% to $6.7 billion thanks to higher sales of HIV, oncology and liver disease treatments. Excluding its COVID-19 antibody Veklury, which brought in $555 million, product sales increased 6%.
HIV treatment Biktarvy continues to be the frontrunner, generating $2.9 billion in sales, up 10% from Q1 2023. One day after the earnings release, Gilead receives FDA approval for an updated label of Biktarvy.
HIV product sales rose 4% to $4.3 billion while the oncology portfolio delivered $789 million in sales, up 18% year-over-year. Meanwhile, liver disease sales rose 9% to $737 million.
The biggest development for Gilead during the quarter was its $4.3 billion deal for CymaBay Therapeutics and scooping up its lead candidate seladelpar, which is being examined for the treatment of primary biliary cholangitis.
During the quarter, Gilead also announced a research collaboration, option and license agreement with Merus N.V. to discover novel dual tumor-associated antigens targeting trispecific antibodies – which could exceed more than $1.5 billion.
The company said the CymaBay acquisition contributed an acquired in-process research and development charge of $3.9 billion, or $3.14 per share. For the quarter, Gilead posted a net loss of $3.34 per share.
Still, Gilead maintained its full year guidance on product sales and revenue expectations for Veklury, though it did lower its EPS outlook to a range of $0.10 to $0.50, down from $5.15 to $5.55.
“Gilead delivered another strong quarter of revenue growth in the first quarter with 6% year-over-year growth in our base business driven by HIV, Oncology and Liver Disease,” Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day said in a statement. “The acquisition of CymaBay brings us another potentially transformative therapy for people with liver disease, and a regulatory decision on seladelpar is expected in August. New HIV data demonstrates the continued progress in our long-acting HIV pipeline, and we look forward to providing updates on this and our broad Oncology portfolio throughout the rest of 2024.”
