Humira tipped for blockbuster status in 2005
pharmafile | January 25, 2005 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â Â
Abbott Laboratories has raised its sales expectations for rheumatoid arthritis treatment Humira and now expects the product's sales to reach $1.3 billion in 2005, $300 million more than originally forecast.
After the most successful launch in Abbott's 115-year history in 2003, sales of Humira reached $852 million last year, but generic competition for other products is expected to slow the company's growth in 2005.
Abbott's pharmaceutical sales increased by 16.9% in the fourth quarter of 2004, pushing its total full year net sales up by 13.9% to $19.7 billion.
The Illinois-based firm's 2004 net earnings grew by 17.5% to $3.2 billion, driven by the strong performance of Humira, as well as high cholesterol drug TriCor, marketed in the UK by Fournier, and HIV treatment Kaletra.
Analysts have warned that the growth in profits at Abbott's pharmaceutical division will slow in the near future. One of the main reasons for this is emerging generic competition for the company's best-seller, the anti-infective Biaxin (Klaricid in the UK), which could come as early as May 2005. In 2004 Biaxin made sales of $1.2 billion, a 3% drop on the previous year's sales.
Sales of Kaletra rose 12.8% to $247 million, although the drug has been at the centre of controversy after the company increased the price of its older HIV treatment Norvir by 400%.
US-based activists, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, mounted a public campaign against the company, claiming the price increase was intended to force a switch to Kaletra.
Meanwhile, sales of thyroid replacement drug Synthroid fell by 6.5% due to generic competition, and sales of ulcer treatment Prevacid slumped by 42.6% as patients chose a cheaper over-the-counter version: AstraZeneca's Prilosec.
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