AbbVie 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Good morning, thanks for joining us. Also on the call with me today are Rob Michael, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Stewart, Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, Roopal Thakkar, Executive Vice President, Research and Development, Chief Scientific Officer, and Scott Reents, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I'll note that some statements we make today may be considered forward-looking statements based on our current expectations. AbbVie cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in our forward-looking statements. Additional information about these risks and uncertainties is included in our SEC filings. AbbVie undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements except as required by law. On today's conference call, non-GAAP financial measures will be used to help investors understand AbbVie's business performance.

These non-GAAP financial measures are reconciled with comparable GAAP financial measures in our earnings release and regulatory filings from today, which can be found on our website. Following our prepared remarks, we'll take your questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Rob.

Thank you, Liz. Good morning, everyone, thank you for joining us. AbbVie delivered another excellent quarter, with results once again exceeding our expectations. I'm especially pleased with the execution across our business, including double-digit sales growth from our diverse portfolio, the advancement of our compelling pipeline of innovative medicines, and our planned acquisition of Apogee Therapeutics, which represents an exciting opportunity to bolster AbbVie's leading immunology portfolio. Turning to our second quarter performance, we achieved adjusted earnings per share of $3.65, which is $0.06 above our guidance midpoint. Total net revenues were nearly $17 billion, beating our expectations by $300 million, and reflecting robust sales growth of 10.2%. The performance of SKYRIZI, RINVOQ, and our neuroscience portfolio continues to be very strong, with each delivering growth above 20%.

Based on this momentum, we are raising our full-year revenue guidance by $300 million and have now raised total revenue by $600 million since the start of the year. Turning now to R&D, we continue to make excellent progress advancing our pipeline. Recent highlights from our late-stage programs include the U.S. approval of DECNUPAZ, a treatment for a rare form of blood cancer. This represents AbbVie's first marketed ADC in hematology. We also received European approvals for QULIPTA to treat acute migraine, Tepkinly for second-line follicular lymphoma, as well as Boey, a first-in-class short-acting toxin in aesthetics. In addition, we received European approvals for RINVOQ in both vitiligo and alopecia areata, with U.S. regulatory decisions forthcoming. Based on the compelling data generated for each of these programs, we now anticipate the combined peak sales for these two indications alone to approach $2 billion, which is meaningfully above our prior expectations.

During the quarter, we also announced the acquisition of Apogee Therapeutics, which will add multiple differentiated assets in dermatology, respiratory, and other related inflammatory diseases with significant sales potential. The acquisition will add even more depth to our robust pipeline in immunology, which we expect will be a major growth driver for AbbVie over the long term. This transaction is an excellent fit with our strategy to build and advance a compelling pipeline with new sources of growth to support AbbVie's performance in the 2030s and beyond. We have ample financial capacity for more business development and remain focused on adding both early and late-stage opportunities across our core disease areas. In summary, we are delivering outstanding execution across our business, and our long-term outlook remains very strong. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jeff for additional comments on our commercial highlights.

Jeff? Thank you, Rob. I'll start with the quarterly results for immunology, which delivered total revenues of nearly $8.8 billion, reflecting very strong operational sales growth of 14.6%.

SKYRIZI total sales were $5.5 billion, up 24% on an operational basis, once again exceeding our expectations. I'm very pleased with our performance in psoriasis, where we continue to capture robust in-play share of new and switching patients at a rate which is impressively four times higher than any other biologic or oral treatment in the U.S. We have achieved market share leadership now in more than 30 countries and see substantial room for continued growth globally. We do not expect a material impact to our robust outlook in psoriasis from existing or new therapies given SKYRIZI's very distinct profile.

This includes high and very durable skin clearance from head to toe, widely demonstrated superior efficacy in head-to-head trials versus five different mechanisms, including both biologics and oral agents, simple and convenient quarterly dosing, and extremely strong long-term data in psoriatic arthritis extending now to five years, which is very important to prescribers as roughly 30% of psoriasis patients ultimately develop PsA. As well as now our recent approval for pediatric use with the new weight-based dosing option. In IBD, SKYRIZI's fastest-growing indication, we continue to capture a leading share of total new patient starts in the U.S. in the quarter, including substantial leadership in the front-line setting, the clearest signal of physician preference. Competitive dynamics remain in line with our expectations with the IL-23 category seeing very robust growth in both Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

Importantly, we are also preparing for the potential approval of our subcutaneous induction dosing option for Crohn's later this fall, which is supported by very strong data, particularly in the front line, where we observe the highest levels of endoscopic response seen in the category. Turning now to RINVOQ, which is also performing above our expectations. Global sales were more than $2.5 billion, up 23.7% on an operational basis. I am especially pleased with the momentum we see in gastroenterology, where RINVOQ is on pace to deliver 30% global sales growth this year. RINVOQ has set a very high bar for efficacy in both ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, demonstrating strong rates of remission and endoscopic improvement. We continue to see a nice inflection of in-play patient share following the recently expanded label supporting access to RINVOQ earlier in the treatment paradigm for IBD patients.

More broadly, we continue to see strong demand across all of RINVOQ indications. We are very excited about the growth potential in dermatology with vitiligo and alopecia areata now approved in Europe, with U.S. approval decisions anticipated over the next few quarters. RINVOQ's profile is competitively positioned for both of these chronic diseases, where our recently expanded U.S. derm field force will support both launches. Lastly, in immunology, HUMIRA global sales were $756 million, down 36.1% on an operational basis, reflecting biosimilar competition and in line with our expectations. Moving to neuroscience, where we once again outperformed our expectations. Total revenues were more than $3.2 billion, up approximately 20% on an operational basis. All three of our leading neuro pillars continue to demonstrate robust sales growth. In psychiatry, VRAYLAR global sales were nearly $1.1 billion, up approximately 19%, reflecting share gains in both bipolar disorder and adjunctive MDD.

In migraine, our leading portfolio continues to deliver outstanding results, with BOTOX therapeutic, UBRELVY, and QULIPTA each delivering double-digit sales growth again this quarter. QULIPTA is now approved in Europe for adults as both an acute treatment option for migraine attacks and as a once-daily preventative treatment option for chronic or episodic migraine. The acute indication expansion in international markets for QULIPTA further supports our long-term outlook for our oral CGRPs to collectively achieve more than $5 billion of peak sales. Moving to Parkinson's disease, another substantial long-term growth driver for AbbVie. Total sales for Vyalev were $256 million, up more than 27% on a sequential basis. Vyalev is well on track to achieve blockbuster sales this year. We expect continued robust momentum in Parkinson's with the anticipated U.S. approval and launch of tavapadone in the third quarter.

Feedback from key opinion leaders has been very positive, with tavapadone demonstrating strong efficacy as both a monotherapy as well as an add-on to standard of care. Overall, we believe our Parkinson's portfolio with Vyalev, tavapadone, and DUOPA will be a substantial commercial opportunity. We continue to expect collective Parkinson's peak sales of more than $5 billion. Turning now to oncology, where total revenues were more than $1.6 billion, down 2.4% on an operational basis. Total VENCLEXTA sales were $771 million, up 9.6% on an operational basis. Performance in CLL continues to be strong as VENCLEXTA use in combination with BTK inhibitors is expanding as a preferred fixed-duration treatment globally. Double-digit sales growth from ELAHERE, Tepkinly, and EMRELIS also helped to partially offset the sales decline for IMBRUVICA, which was down 29.4% as expected due to IRA pricing and competitive share pressure.

We also launched DECNUPAZ, a new therapeutic option for patients living with BPDCN, an ultra-rare form of blood cancer, further expanding AbbVie's emerging ADC portfolio. Moving now to aesthetics, which delivered global sales of nearly $1.3 billion, down 0.9% on an operational basis. BOTOX Cosmetic total revenues were $728 million, up 3.4% operationally, reflecting modest market growth globally. JUVÉDERM global sales were $245 million, down 6.6% operationally, reflecting continued headwinds in key dermal filler markets. As the industry leader, we continue to invest in this highly under-penetrated market to support long-term growth. I'm especially pleased with the recent Europe and Canada approvals of Boey, our fast-acting, short-duration toxin. Boey complements our toxin portfolio very nicely and represents a new way for patients to initiate an aesthetic treatment. We expect Boey will meaningfully expand the toxin market and look forward to potentially bringing this exciting innovation to the U.S.