Three years after AbbVie stood at the edge of a major patent cliff with the loss of exclusivity for immunology megablockbuster Humira, CEO Robert Michael can now declare that “we have never been in a stronger position.”
The bulk of AbbVie and Michael’s confidence comes from Skyrizi, the company’s fast-growing Humira successor. If it wasn’t clear before that Skyrizi is on track to climb to even greater heights than its predecessor, it's hard to deny now. Five years after Humira’s quarterly sales brought in $4.86 billion in the first quarter of 2021, Skyrizi took home $4.48 billion in its own first-quarter sales haul for 2026.
The drug’s 30.9% quarterly growth “exceeded our expectations,” chief commercial officer Jeffrey Stewart commented on a company conference call. Skyrizi has held on to “clear leadership” in the growing psoriatic market and holds a “distinct advantage” over existing therapies in the space with its quarterly dosing and durable efficacy, Stewart added.
AbbVie has long maintained confidence in Skyrizi amid competition, including with Johnson & Johnson’s Tremfya, which holds many of the same psoriasis and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) indications as AbbVie’s star player. But as of March, J&J is armed with what looks to be a fierce new rival in once-daily psoriasis pill Icotyde, which has been dubbed a “potential game-changer” for patients.
To that, AbbVie's Stewart stressed that Icotyde, which is “quite early” in its launch, is “not an oral Skyrizi."
“The efficacy parameters are quite a bit lower when you match all the controls, you understand the population, which our medical teams and our commercial teams are able to highlight,” Stewart said, adding that psoriatic arthritis (PsA), which Skyrizi was approved for in 2022, is a “huge market value driver.”
On Icotyde’s side, there’s “not a lot of evidence there,” the executive pointed out, referring to PsA. J&J is currently studying its med in two PsA studies, but the results have not yet been read out.
A major selling point of Icotyde in psoriasis is its once-daily oral dosing, whereas Skyrizi and other biologics are administered via injection. Stewart, however, contends that there are “some complexities” around oral adherence in psoriasis.
“We’re well prepared for this dynamic. We think we can navigate this competitor quite well,” Stewart said. The company is also prepared for potential market expansion as a result of the added competition, as was the case when Amgen’s Otezla hit the scene in 2014, Stewart added.
With AbbVie “well aware” of the competition, according to CEO Michael, Skyrizi is now expected to pick up $21.6 billion in total net revenues for 2026, chief financial officer Scott Reents said on the call, up $100 million from its previous forecast due to “demand growth in psoriasis and IBD indications.”
The company bumped up its $67 billion full-year sales expectations to $67.3 billion, tacking on another $300 million based on “approximate assumptions for several key products and therapeutic areas,” Reents added, pointing to expected increases for Skyrizi, Rinvoq and AbbVie's neuroscience product portfolio.
The first quarter of 2026 saw $15 billion in total sales for AbbVie, up 12.4% from the same period last year.
Other than its immunology catalog, which together collected $7.29 billion in first-quarter sales, the company highlighted neuroscience drugs as its next-biggest franchise. On the back of $2.87 billion in revenues across the space, AbbVie is busy molding a new neuroscience blockbuster hopeful with Parkinson’s disease med Vyalev.
The therapy pulled down $201 million in quarterly sales and is “on track” to cross the billion-dollar sales threshold this year, Stewart pointed out on the call. Meanwhile, atypical antipsychotic Vraylar collected $905 million, touting “significant leadership” in bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder.
“We have never been in a stronger position,” Michael said. “We are the clear leader in immunology and neuroscience, with a portfolio of assets that are demonstrating very significant growth, in many cases, north of 20%, and both areas have a pipeline that can deliver transformational improvements over existing therapies.”