AbbVie jacks up 2027 sales projection for star duo of Skyrizi, Rinvoq to $31B

Two years after AbbVie’s loss of market exclusivity for Humira, those “How it Started and How it’s Going” memes are looking better each quarter for the Illinois drugmaker.

On Friday, when AbbVie reported its quarterly earnings, the pharma giant jacked up its 2027 projected sales of Humira follow-ons Skyrizi and Rinvoq to a combined $31 billion. It is a $4 billion increase on the company’s previous guidance for the immunology duo.

Chief commercial officer Jeff Stewart explained that the projection increase has come because of growing “share capture.” Skyrizi now holds 40% of the total prescription share of the biologics psoriasis market, he said.

Of the $4 billion adjustment to the 2027 projection, $2 billion has been added to Skyrizi’s estimate in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and $500 million has been added to Rinvoq’s in the same indication.  

“Across the board, we’re seeing tremendous performance, particularly in IBD,” Stewart explained.

Breaking down their individual contributions, AbbVie sees Skyrizi sales in 2027 hitting $20 billion and Rinvoq coming in at $11 billion. In 2024, the drugs generated $11.7 billion and $6 billion, respectively. 

Additionally, the $31 billion figure exceeds the $29 billion that Humira, Skyrizi and Rinvoq combined to generate in 2022, the year before Humira faced biosimilar competition in the U.S.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, the growth of Skyrizi and Rinvoq was more than enough to compensate for the surprisingly low sales of Humira, which came in at $1.68 billion. The figure missed analyst estimates by about $300 million.

Meanwhile in the period, Skyrizi, at $3.78 billion, and Rinvoq, at $1.83, both topped analyst expectations. Their combined sequential sales increase of $790 million eclipsed the $530 million sequential drop for Humira.

“When you think about Skyrizi and Rinvoq, our strategy here was to elevate the standard of care for patients and ultimately drive a rapid return of growth for the company beyond Humira, and that’s exactly what we’ve been able to execute,” CEO Rob Michael said.

For the year, AbbVie’s revenue reached $56.3 billion, a 3.7% increase from 2023 and a turnaround from the 6.4% decrease the company saw when it reported annual results a year ago.

AbbVie projects its 2025 sales will grow by mid-single-digit percentages. 

“Given that we have no significant [loss of exclusivity] events for the rest of this decade, we have a clear runway to growth for at least the next eight years,” Michael said.

AbbVie's share price jumped by about 7% on Friday in the wake of the earnings release.