AbbVie's fight to replace Humira begins now

Come 2023, AbbVie is going to have a roughly $20 billion problem in the form of biosimilar competition to Humira, the drug that now accounts for more than half of its revenue.

Yesterday, the company completed step one of its contingency plan by winning FDA approval for a drug called Skyrizi. The injectable medicine is now cleared to treat psoriasis, which is one of Humira's many indications, and AbbVie believes it will eventually bring in $5 billion in sales each year.

But, as STAT's Ed Silverman reports, analysts are a little less sanguine. Skyrizi will compete in a crowded market, and at least some people who get it quit Humira to do so, cannibalizing AbbVie's return.

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