AbbVie

By: Kevin Schulman and Laura Little and Samyukta Mullangi and Stephen Schleicher

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Synopsis: This case focuses on the impact of a novel regulatory pathway, the biosimilars pathway, on the strategy of a major pharmaceutical firm that finds its largest product (60% of revenue) at risk. The case reviews the rationale for the pathway, the emerging biosimilars market entrants, and a series of adverse financial forecasts for AbbVie. Given all of these risks, did the acquisition add value to shareholders? AbbVie made headlines in March 2015 when it announced its $21 billion acquisition of Pharmacyclics. AbbVie, a research-based pharmaceutical company, was founded in 2013 when Abbott split into AbbVie and Abbott Laboratories. Pharmacyclics is a biotechnology company that had received FDA approval in late 2013 for its flagship asset Imbrivica (ibrutinib), a biologic treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia and two other even rarer blood malignancies. Entering its second year on the market, Imbrivica was considered a breakthrough, with revenue expectations of $1 billion in 2015. At the time of the acquisition, AbbVie received more than 60% of its sales from the drug Humira, a biologic agent used to treat several autoimmune diseases and malignancies. However, Humira would soon lose patent protection and face competition from the new class of follow-on biologics, or biosimilars.