Humira sales fall, but AbbVie has successors

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Good morning! Sales of AbbVieHumira’s are in freefall as the once-best-selling drug battles competition from cheaper biosimilars in the United States and abroad.

But AbbVie offers two key drugs that treat many of the same conditions as Humira, and they are proving to be worthy successors to the company’s flagship drug.

That became clear after AbbVie on Friday reported first-quarter revenue and adjusted profit that beat Wall Street expectations, thanks in part to the strength of the drugmaker’s immunology business. The pharmaceutical giant also raised its annual profit forecast.

Humira’s revenue plunged more than 30% to $2.3 billion in the first quarter, according to AbbVie.

For years, AbbVie built a wall of patent protections around the drug, extending its market exclusivity well beyond the expiration of its main U.S. patent in 2016. But Humira lost its U.S. exclusivity last year. last year following the launch of nine biosimilars, including some. have been available in Europe since 2019. A 10th biosimilar was launched in February.

However, biosimilars have barely dented AbbVie’s monopoly. As of February, biosimilars captured about 4% of AbbVie’s share of the Humira market, according to a quarterly report from Samsung Bioepis.

But that changed after CVSOn April 1, Caremark’s head of pharmacy benefits removed Humira from some of its major national formularies for health plans and instead recommended biosimilar versions of the drug. The forms are lists of medications preferred for reimbursement.

Humira biosimilar market share increased from 5% to 36% in the week following the change, according to data cited by Axios. In April, Swiss company Sandoz’s biosimilar, known as Hyrimoz, contributed to the majority of new Humira biosimilar prescriptions. This product is co-marketed by a CVS subsidiary called Cordavis.

But AbbVie continues to “successfully navigate” Humira’s patent cliff, company CEO Rick Gonzalez said on last week’s earnings conference call.

The data indicates that “not all Humira prescriptions migrate to a biosimilar,” added Jeffrey Stewart, chief commercial officer, on the call. He said 20% of patients are switching to new drugs, including AbbVie’s Skyrizi and Rinvoq immunotherapy treatments.

Skyrizi raked in $2 billion in revenue for the first quarter, roughly matching Humira’s revenue for the period. Meanwhile, Rinvoq reported revenue of $1.1 billion in the first quarter.

These new drugs are growing rapidly: Skyrizi sales jumped 48% compared to the same period last year, while Rinvoq revenues soared 59%.

Skyrizi is the “undisputed market leader” among U.S. biologics for psoriasis, with 35% market share, AbbVie executives said on the call. The company is expected to launch the drug in patients with ulcerative colitis, which its executives say should be a “strong” market after possible approval later this year.

In the inflammatory bowel disease space, Skyrizi takes a “significant share” of sales of J&J’s blockbuster drug Stelara, according to AbbVie executives. Stelara is expected to lose its exclusivity in the United States in 2025.

At the same time, Rinvoq is seeing an increase in treatment use among patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, among other indications.

Still, CVS’s decision to exclude Humira from some of its formularies raises doubts about the drug’s sales ability in the United States, especially if other pharmacy benefit managers eventually follow suit.

Competition with Humira could intensify in other ways as well: Health insurer Cigna announced April 25 that it plans to make some Humira biosimilars available without out-of-pocket payment to eligible U.S. patients using its specialty pharmacy business starting in June.

Alvotech And Teva Pharmaceuticals also announced a deal with an unspecified company to improve access to its biosimilar Simlandi, which mimics Humira’s more popular formulation and can be directly substituted in pharmacies.

We will continue to monitor developments in Humira’s competitive landscape this year.

Feel free to send tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.

This is Ashley, reporting from Washington, DC.

I’m here to watch UnitedHealth Group’CEO Andrew Witty testified on Capitol Hill this week about the cyberattack on the company’s subsidiary, Change Healthcare. On Wednesday morning, Witty will speak before the Senate Finance Committee, then he will go before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee in the afternoon.

It’s sure to be an eventful day, and both hearings will be streamed live if you’d like to tune in.

Here’s where things stand now.

In late February, UnitedHealth revealed that part of Change Healthcare’s computer network had been hacked by a cybercriminal. UnitedHealth disconnected affected systems and worked to bring them back online in recent weeks.

Change Healthcare offers payment and revenue cycle management tools, among other solutions like electronic prescribing software. It performs 15 billion billing transactions per year and one in three patient records passes through its systems, according to the company.

Given the size of the company, the disruption caused by the cyberattack had far-reaching consequences across the healthcare industry. Many doctors temporarily could not fill their prescriptions or get paid for their services, for example.

On February 29, UnitedHealth said the Blackcat ransomware group was behind the attack. Blackcat, also called Noberus and ALPHV, steals sensitive data from institutions and threatens to release it unless a ransom is paid, according to a December statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.

UnitedHealth told CNBC on April 22 that it paid a ransom to protect patient data. It also confirmed that files containing protected health information and personally identifiable information were compromised in the breach, according to a statement.

The company said its investigation into the attack was still ongoing, so it could be months before it can notify those affected. UnitedHealth worked with law enforcement, regulators and cybersecurity experts to assess the breach.

I expect lawmakers at this week’s hearings will want to know more about what happened and what the attack means for providers and patients.

I’ll bring you any updates as they happen! Stay tuned.

Feel free to send tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.