AbbVie Inc.

AbbVie Inc. is an American pharmaceutical company headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois. It is ranked sixth on the list of largest biomedical companies by revenue. In 2023, the company's seat in Forbes Global 2000 was 74, and rank 89 on the 2024 list. The company's primary product is Humira (adalimumab) ($14billion in 2023 revenues, 27percent of total), administered via injection. It is approved to treat autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, plaque psoriasis, and ulcerative colitis.

It developed Skyrizi ($7.8billion in 2023 revenues), an interleukin-23 (IL-23) inhibitor also used to treat autoimmune diseases. Its other major products include Botox ($5.7billion in 2023 revenues), Imbruvica to treat cancer ($3.6billion in 2023 revenues), Rinvoq to treat arthritis ($4billion in 2023 revenues), Venclexta to treat leukemia and lymphoma ($2.3billion in 2023 revenues), Vraylar to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder ($2.7billion in 2023 revenues), and Mavyret to treat Hepatitis C ($1.4billion in 2023 revenues). The company is also committed to product development for other treatments of cancer, neurologic diseases, eye care, and cystic fibrosis.

In 2023, Humira began facing competition from a biosimilar developed by Amgen. The company is also developing a drug for Parkinson's disease that could be a blockbuster drug in 2027 and is awaiting approval from the Food and Drug Administration for epcoritamab, a blood-cancer therapy under development in partnership with Genmab.

The name "AbbVie" is derived from a combination of " Abbott", the name of its former parent company, with "vie", intended as a reference to a Latin root meaning 'life'.

History

On October 19, 2011, Abbott Laboratories announced its plan to separate into two publicly traded companies, spinning off its research-based pharmaceutical manufacturer division. This spin-off company, named AbbVie, was formed on April 10, 2012. The separation was fully effective January 1, 2013, and AbbVie was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ABBV) on January 2, 2013.

In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Israeli government announced that it would force AbbVie to license its patents for Kaletra, the brand name of lopinavir/ritonavir, a fixed dose combination medication for the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS which was also thought to have some applicability to fighting COVID-19. In response, AbbVie announced that it would cease enforcing its patents on the drug entirely.

Acquisitions

In January 2014, the company acquired ImmuVen. On September 3, 2014, AbbVie and Infinity Pharmaceuticals entered into a global collaboration to develop and commercialize duvelisib, Infinity's PI3K inhibitor for the treatment of patients with cancer. On the same day, AbbVie and Calico entered into a R&D collaboration intended to discover, develop and bring to market new therapies for patients with diseases of aging including neurodegeneration and cancer. California Life Company, operating as Calico, is an Alphabet Inc. subsidiary focused on aging and age-related diseases, and led by former Genentech chairman and CEO of Arthur D. Levinson and former Genentech EVP and chief medical officer Hal V. Barron (who subsequently left the company).

In October 2014, AbbVie ended its efforts to acquire Shire, which would have been one of the largest M&A deals of that year and one of the largest tax inversions in history, due to changes in the US tax code by the US Treasury; AbbVie had to pay a $1.6 billion breakup fee.

On March 4, 2015, AbbVie announced its agreement to acquire oncology firm Pharmacyclics and its treatment for blood cancers, ibrutinib; AstraZeneca had also been bidding to acquire Pharmacyclics. Under the terms of the transaction, AbbVie agreed to pay $261.25 per share as a mix of cash and AbbVie equity. The acquisition valued at approximately $21 billion was completed on May 26, 2015. The Pharmacyclics name was retained, and it operated as a subsidiary of AbbVie from its previous Sunnyvale, California headquarters until the consolidation of AbbVie Bay Area sites in a new building in South San Francisco. On June 3, 2015, AbbVie and Halozyme Therapeutics announced that they had entered into a global collaboration and licensing agreement to develop and commercialize products that combine AbbVie's treatments and Halozyme's ENHANZE drug-delivery technology, this was terminated in November 2016.

On 28 April 2016, the company announced it would acquire Stemcentrx for up to $9.8 billion. A day later, the company announced an expansion of a two and a half-year-old cystic fibrosis deal with Galapagos NV, potentially doubling milestone payments to $600 million.

On 25 June 2019, AbbVie announced it would acquire Irish-based Allergan plc for about $63 billion; however the transaction would not be structured as a tax inversion, and that post the transaction, AbbVie would remain legally domiciled in the U.S. for tax purposes. The company divested certain assets to gain FTC approval.

In July 2019, the company announced it would acquire Mavupharma, boosting its cancer drug pipeline.

In May 2021, Allergan Aesthetics announced the acquisition of Soliton. In June, Abbvie acquired TeneoOne and its lead compound TNB-383B. The compound is a BCMA-targeting immunotherapeutic for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

In March 2022, AbbVie acquired Syndesi Therapeutics for up to $1 billion and its portfolio of novel modulators of the synaptic vesicle protein 2A and lead compound SDI-118. In October, the company acquired DJS Antibodies for $225 million, giving it access to an experimental drug for an aggressive lung disease as well as technology to develop certain antibody medicines.

In November 2023, AbbVie announced it would be buying ImmunoGen for $10.1 billion, aiming to expedite its entry into the ovarian cancer treatment market with ImmunoGen's drug Elahere. The deal, which is subject to approval by ImmunoGen shareholders and regulators, was finalized in February 2024.

In December 2023, AbbVie announced that it will acquire neuroscience drugmaker Cerevel Therapeutics for $8.7 billion, in an attempt to expand its drug pipeline. The acquisition was completed in August 2024.

On June 1, 2024, AbbVie's current President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Robert Michael replaced Richard Gonzalez as CEO of AbbVie. Gonzalez will be the executive chairman.

In February 2024, AbbVie Inc. and Tentarix Biotherapeutics announced the beginning of a long-term collaboration in the discovery and development of opportunistic, multi-specific biological candidates in oncology and immunology. AbbVie provides expertise in these areas, and will also provide Tentarix with option advances worth $64 million for two programs, and Tentarix will provide its patented Tentarix Tentacles™platform. AbbVie will receive an exclusive option to purchase the software in full, but the amount of the additional payment is not disclosed. In March of the same year the company announced it would acquire Landos Biopharma for over $200 million.

On Sept 9, 2024 AbbVie has filed a lawsuit against cancer treatment maker BeiGene alleging that it had encouraged their former scientist Huaqing Liu’s trade secrets.The company had spent years of research and investments to develop a compound that could have treated a certain type of blood and bone marrow cancers related to the growth of “B cells”.

In October 2024, AbbVie acquired Aliada Therapeutics for $1.4bn to expand its neuroscience pipeline.

In December 2024, AbbVie bought Nimble Therapeutics, a Roche spinout working to develop oral peptide treatments in the autoimmune area, for $200 million.

Acquisition history

* Abbvie
** Pharmacyclics
** Stemcentrx
** Venice Subsidiary LLC
*** Allergan, plc
**** Allergan, inc
***** MAP Pharmaceuticals Inc
***** Kythera Biopharmaceuticals
**** Actavis plc
***** Eden Biodesign
***** Watson Pharmaceuticals
***** Warner Chilcott Plc
***** Andrx Corporation
***** Procter & Gamble
***** Arrow Group
***** Specifar Pharmaceuticals S.A.
***** Ascent Pharmahealth Ltd
***** Actavis Group
***** Galen
***** Uteron Pharma, S.A.
***** Durata Therapeutics
***** Silom Medical Company
***** Forest Laboratories
****** Aptalis Pharma
******* Axcan Pharma
******* Eurand Pharmaceuticals
****** Furiex Pharmaceuticals Inc
***** Auden Mckenzie Holdings Limited
**** Oculeve, Inc
**** Naurex Inc
**** AqueSys
**** Northwood Medical Innovation Ltd
**** Topokine Therapeutics
**** Vitae Pharmaceuticals, Inc
**** Tobira Therapeutics
**** ForSight VISION5
**** RetroSense Therapeutics
**** Akarna Therapeutics
**** Motus Therapeutics
**** Chase Pharmaceuticals
**** LifeCell
**** Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc.
**** Keller Medical, Inc
**** Repros Therapeutics
**** Envy Medical, Inc.
**** Mavupharma
**** Soliton
** TeneoOne
** Syndesi Therapeutics
** DJS Antibodies
** Landos Biopharma
** ImmunoGen
** Cerevel Therapeutics
** Aliada Therapeutic
** Nimble Therapeutics

Collaborations and partnerships

On February 10, 2016, AbbVie and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Synlogic announced a multi-year R&D collaboration. Synlogic is a synthetic biology company built on research from the labs of James Collins and Tim Lu at MIT. As part of the collaboration, AbbVie is getting worldwide rights to Synlogic's probiotic-based technology for treating inflammatory bowel disease, and the research teams will focus on Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. In April 2016, the company partnered with the University of Chicago to investigate a number of areas of oncology: breast, lung, prostate, colorectal and hematological cancers. In the same month the company announced it would co-commercialize Argenx's preclinical immunotherapy, ARGX-115. ARGX-115 is a first-in-class immunotherapy targeting GARP (glycoprotein A repetitions predominant), a membrane protein believed to enhance the immunosuppressive effects of T cells. The company also announced a deal to co-develop/commercialize at least one of CytomX Probody's conjugates against CD71 (transferrin receptor 1).

In March 2020, AbbVie announced plans to evaluate the Kaletra/Aluvia HIV medicine as possible COVID-19 treatment. The company entered into various partnerships with health authorities in different countries to investigate the efficacy of the medication. However, the first non-blinded, randomized trial found the drug not useful to treat severe COVID-19.

In January 2025, AbbVie announced a $1.64bn partnership with Neomorph aimed at developing new molecular glue degraders for multiple targets across oncology and immunology. In the same month, it announced a $1bn partnership with Simcere Zaiming to develop an investigational drug candidate for multiple myeloma.

In May 2025, AbbVie announced it was entering a collaboration and license option deal with ADARx Pharmaceuticals to develop a new type of RNA technology for disease areas like neuroscience, immunology and oncology.

Controversies

Drug pricing

First released in 2003, AbbVie has since raised the price of Humira by more than 470%, culminating in an annual supply costing about $77,000. It has increased the price of Imbruvica, a drug used to treat mantle cell lymphoma and other cancers, by 82% since it launched in 2013. In 2022, it was priced at $181,529. For patients taking four pills each day, the cost was $242,039.

According to the ''Wall Street Journal'', as of January 2016 ibrutinib, a specialty drug, cost US$116,600 to $155,400 a year wholesale in the United States. In spite of discounts and medical insurance, the prohibitive price causes some patients to not fill their prescriptions. AbbVie estimated global sales of the drug at $1 billion in 2016 and $5 billion in 2020.

Anti-competitive practices

AbbVie has been accused of using anti-competitive patent thickets to prevent potentially cheaper biosimilars from entering the market. It is currently caught up in a legislative battle against Icelandic Alvotech, which is trying to bring a Humira biosimilar to market. Forest Laboratories, a subsidiary of AbbVie, has been accused of using unlawful deals to prevent generic versions of its Alzheimer's disease drug, Namenda, from entering the market.

In 2018, AbbVie agreed to pay $25 million to resolve allegations that it made use of kickback schemes to promote its cholesterol drug Tricor. In 2020, AbbVie agreed to pay $24M to resolve allegations that it made use of kickback schemes to promote its rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira using "nurse ambassadors".

Tax avoidance

In June 2021, the United States Senate Finance Committee, under Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR), began an investigation to determine if the company used the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to buy back its own stock using income saved by the tax law. In a letter to AbbVie CEO Richard Gonzalez, Wyden noted the company suffered a 2020 pretax loss in the US of $4.5 billion and an overseas pretax profit of $7.9 billion the same year. Wyden accused the company of shifting revenue to avoid US taxes.

Marketing of opioid painkillers

In July 2022 the company agreed to pay up to $2.37 billion to settle U.S. lawsuits against its Allergan unit over the marketing of opioid painkillers. As part of the settlement, AbbVie, denied any wrongdoing. The company's stock fell 6 percent following an earnings report that included a $2.2 billion charge related to the opioid deal.

Litigation by the company against the NHS

In 2018, it started litigation against NHS England in the Technology and Construction Court claiming that the agency breached procurement rules and had not treated the company fairly during what was described as "the single largest medicines procurement ever done by the NHS" when seeking suppliers for hepatitis C treatments. In 2019, a UK court dismissed AbbVie's case against the NHS.

Carbon footprint

AbbVie reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending 31 December 2020 at 508 Kt (−57 /-10.1% y-o-y).Alt URL
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References

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Biotechnology companies of the United States
Pharmaceutical companies of the United States
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange