AbbVie Inc, which last week announced plans to purchase Dublin-based drugmaker Shire Plc for $55 billion, reported stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings on surging sales of its Humira treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.Second-quarter sales rose 5 percent to $4.93 billion, topping Wall Street expectations of $4.7 billion. The gains were mostly due to Humira, an injectable treatment whose global sales jumped 26 percent to $3.29 billion, AbbVie said on Friday.Jefferies analyst Jeffrey Holford said Humira sales were $350 million above expectations, and he affirmed his rating of AbbVie as the top global pick in the pharmaceutical industry."The scale of the Humira beat will surprise all," Holford said. But he noted that numerous other AbbVie products fell short in the quarter, including the Androgel testosterone drug, Kaletra medicine for HIV, and Lupron treatment for prostate cancer.
AbbVie Inc. (AbbVie) is a research-based pharmaceuticals company. Shares of ABBV fell by 1.76% or $-0.95/share to $53.13. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $42.25 and as high as $58.27. On average, 7980000 shares of ABBV exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 8740123.
Source
