Anx­ious to fill Hu­mi­ra-sized rev­enue hole ahead of US patent cliff, Ab­b­Vie hits the ground run­ning with FDA ap­proval for Skyrizi

With the loom­ing cloud of los­ing US patent pro­tec­tion for its mega-block­buster Hu­mi­ra, Ab­b­Vie needs all the help it can get to fill the gap­ing $20 bil­lion hole the flag­ship au­toim­mune dis­ease drug will leave in its cof­fers. On Tues­day, the com­pa­ny se­cured the FDA ap­proval of an IL-23 in­hibitor, Skyrizi, that is ex­pect­ed to go some way in re­plen­ish­ing that rev­enue stream: $4 bil­lion to $5 bil­lion in peak an­nu­al sales by Ab­b­Vie’s es­ti­mate — al­though that may be dif­fi­cult in the in­tense­ly com­pet­i­tive field it is set to en­ter.

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