The markets for AbbVie’s products are highly competitive. AbbVie’s Humira competes with anti-TNF products and other competitive products intended to treat a number of disease states and AbbVie’s virology products compete with other available hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment options.
Also, the substitution of generic pharmaceutical products for branded pharmaceutical products creates competitive pressures on AbbVie’s products that do not have patent protection. New products or treatments brought to market by its competitors could cause revenues for AbbVie’s products to fall due to price reductions and sales volume decreases.
In the recent months, AbbVie has made a couple of acquisitions. In June, AbbVie agreed to buy Botox-producer Allergan Plc for $63 billion. In July, the company agreed to buy Mavupharma for bolstering its cancer drug pipeline.
Also read: Abbott Q2 earnings results
Analysts expect the company’s earnings to increase by 10% to $2.20 per share while revenue will decline by 2% to $8.1 billion for the second quarter. In comparison, during the previous year quarter, AbbVie posted a profit of $2.00 per share on revenue of $8.26 billion. The company has surprised investors by beating analysts’ expectations thrice in the past four quarters.
For the first quarter, the company reported a 12% decline in earnings due to lower revenue, higher interest expense, and other expenses. Revenue declined by 1% year-over-year due to a 6% decrease in global Humira revenue and a 43% dip in revenue from the hematologic oncology portfolio. For the full year 2019, the company expects earnings in the range of $7.26 to $7.36 per share and adjusted earnings in the range of $8.73 to $8.83 per share.
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