The final hurrah? Humira sales hits $21.2 bn in 2022

AbbVie expects Humira sales to fall to $13.7 billion, a 37% drop, as up to ten biosimilars are set to be available midyear.

The firm reported $58 billion in total sales for 2022 with monoclonal antibody (mAb) Humira (adalimumab) contributing $21.2 billion, a 2.6% increase on the same period 2021. While the US experienced a 7.4% increase in sales annually, internationally, revenue decreased 22.2%, attributedto biosimilar competition.

To date, Humira has pulled in sales of $214.2 billion for AbbVie (and previously Abbott) since its launch in 2003, making it the bestselling drug ever. However, in January, Amgen became the first company to eye a slice of Humira’s American pie with the launch of the first adalimumab biosimilar, Amjevita.

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While Amgen has an advantage of being first to market  through a 2017 settlement with AbbVie, there are nine other players with approved biosimilars lined up  – Alvotech, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Coherus, Fresenius Kabi, Mylan, Pfizer, Organon, Sandoz, Viatris.

“With one biosimilar currently in the market and potentially nine more biosimilars available in the middle of the year, we anticipate that sales erosion will be more heavily weighted towards the second half of 2023,” Rob Michael, vice chairman and president of AbbVie, told shareholders during the firm’s earnings call last week.

In particular, Michael detailed how erosion is expected to be most hard hitting in the second half of the year as more biosimilars come to market. He declined to comment on predictions for 2024 but did say the company expects “to see additional price but albeit not at the same level as 2023 and more volume coming through because you’re going to have up to 10 biosimilars in the market for the full year.”

The loss of exclusivity in January has led the firm to anticipate Humira sales to fall to $13.7 billion in 2023, with a US sales erosion of 37%. Statista predicted similar sales of $13.5 billion for AbbVie’s Humira this year.

With predicted sales of $24 billion in 2023, Merck & Co’s  Keytruda (pembrolizumab) would become the top selling drug in the world, knocking Humira off its throne.