By Lauren Pollock
AbbVie Inc. predicted sharply higher earnings for the new year,
driven by rheumatoid-arthritis drug Humira and the launch of its
new hepatitis C virus treatment.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month approved the
pharmaceutical company's Viekira Pak, an all-oral cocktail of
several drugs that showed strong success in treating the liver
disease in clinical trials.
The treatment from AbbVie competes with Sovaldi and Harvoni from
Gilead Sciences Inc . Each of the three drugs costs more than
$80,000 per patient for a 12-week regimen, and the battle for
supremacy in the fast-growing market has intensified with the
pharmacy benefit managers taking sides and giving preferred status
to the various treatments.
Abbvie said Thursday that it would further refine its guidance
as the drug launch progresses. The company guided for earnings,
excluding items, of $4.25 to $4.45 a share, in line with the
consensus estimate of $4.33 a share from analysts polled by Thomson
Reuters. The midpoint of that estimate marks a jump of more than
30% over the company's 2014 guidance.
The company added its outlook also considers an expected sales
decline from several products, including AndroGel and the remainder
of the lipid franchise, due to generic competition.
AbbVie walked away last year from $54 billion agreement to buy
Shire PLC amid U.S. regulatory pressure over so-called inversion
deals. The structure of the AbbVie-Shire merger would have enabled
Illinois-based AbbVie to enjoy a lower tax burden by relocating to
the U.K.
Pharmaceutical companies in general have experienced sales
pressures as they lose patent exclusivity to big-selling drugs. For
its part, AbbVie has been looking to lessen its reliance on Humira,
which was the top-grossing prescription medicine of 2013 and was on
pace to keep the title last year. The drug is slated to start
losing its patent protection by the end of 2016.
AbbVie, which was spun off from Abbott Laboratories about two
years ago, intends to offer more detailed guidance when it reports
quarterly results on Jan. 30.
Write to Lauren Pollock at lauren.pollock@wsj.com
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