AbbVie 2024 Financial Report: Skyrizi Breaks $10 Billion, Immunology Business Returns to Growth

On January 31st, AbbVie announced its 2024 results, with total revenue reaching $56.33 billion, showing an increase compared to the previous year (+3.7%). Research and development expenses totaled $12.79 billion, a 66.7% increase year-over-year.

In 2024, AbbVie's main business segments, including Immunology, Oncology, Aesthetics, Neuroscience, and Ophthalmology, generated revenues of $26.68 billion (+2.1%), $6.56 billion (+10.8%), $5.18 billion (-2.2%), $8.99 billion (+16.6%), and $2.24 billion (-7.2%) respectively. Except for the Aesthetics and Ophthalmology segments, all other segments experienced positive growth, with Immunology and Oncology returning to growth after a slight decline last year, and Neuroscience showing a slowdown in growth.

Humira (adalimumab), once known as the "king of drugs," has been on the market for over 22 years, generating over $200 billion in revenue for AbbVie. Due to patent expiration and competition from biosimilars, its sales have been declining annually since 2022. In 2024, Humira's sales dropped by 37.6%, reaching $8.99 billion.

IL-23 monoclonal antibody Skyrizi (risankizumab) and JAK1 inhibitor Rinvoq (upadacitinib) generated $11.72 billion (+50.9%) and $5.97 billion (+50.4%) respectively, for a total of $17.69 billion in revenue, far surpassing Humira.

Skyrizi has become AbbVie's next $10 billion blockbuster after Humira. With broad applications in treating inflammatory bowel disease and dermatological conditions, the product is expected to be among the top five global bestsellers by 2025, according to Nature. In June 2024, Skyrizi was approved by the FDA for the treatment of moderate to severe active ulcerative colitis in adult patients, bringing its total number of indications to seven, including plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and Crohn's disease.

AbbVie is actively advancing clinical research on Skyrizi in several other indications, including juvenile psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and hidradenitis suppurativa.

Although Humira's advantages are gradually diminishing, Skyrizi and Rinvoq continue to maintain growth rates of over 50%. Meanwhile, AbbVie is increasingly focused on external deals to expand its immunology pipeline. According to the PharmaCube database, AbbVie completed 16 mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and business development (BD) deals in 2024, seven of which were in immunology. These included acquiring Nimble for its core asset, an oral peptide IL-23 inhibitor, a $1.71 billion deal with Mingji Biotech for a targeted TL1A monoclonal antibody, and acquiring Landos Biopharma for multiple innovative projects targeting NLRX1 and PLXDC2 pathways.

In oncology, Imbruvica (ibrutinib) sales continued to shrink, with total sales declining to $3.35 billion (-6.9%) during the reporting period. Venclexta (venetoclax) showed stable growth, reaching $2.58 billion (+12.9%). The new hematologic oncology product, the CD3/CD20 bispecific antibody Epkinly (epcoritamab), received FDA approval in May 2023 and generated $146 million in revenue in 2024. Additionally, Elahere (mirvetuximab soravtansine), an FRα ADC drug obtained through AbbVie's $10.1 billion acquisition of ImmunoGen, generated $479 million in revenue in 2024.

In the second-largest business segment, Neuroscience (CNS), the schizophrenia drug Vraylar (cariprazine) saw sales of $3.27 billion (+18.4%) for the year. The migraine drugs Ubrelvy ($1.01 billion, +23.4%), Qulipta ($658 million, +61.3%), and Botox ($3.28 billion, +9.8%) showed stable growth. Parkinson's drug Duodopa ($447 million, -4.6%) saw a slight decline in sales.

In recent years, AbbVie has been expanding its CNS portfolio through acquisitions. In 2021, AbbVie acquired Neurocrine Biosciences for $30 billion. The $8.7 billion acquisition of Cerevel was completed in August 2024, and in October 2024, AbbVie acquired Aliada for $1.4 billion in cash to obtain the anti-focal glutamate amyloid β (3pE-Aβ) antibody ALIA-1758 for Alzheimer's disease treatment.

Currently, AbbVie pipeline updates are as follows:

In addition, from 2025 to 2026, AbbVie will be awaiting regulatory approvals, new drug submissions, and clinical data readouts for several new drugs and indications.

Adjusted, AbbVie expects earnings per share to be between $12.12 and $12.32. Based on the growth of existing products, AbbVie reiterated that it expects a high single-digit compound annual revenue growth rate through 2029 and raised its combined sales forecast for Skyrizi and Rinvoq to over $31 billion.