Will AbbVie's Growing Oncology Portfolio Aid Top-line Growth?
AbbVie ABBV has built a substantial oncology franchise. Initially anchored by blood cancer drugs Imbruvica and Venclexta, the company has also been expanding its offerings into solid tumors. Its latest offerings now include Epkinly (for lymphoma), Elahere (for ovarian cancer), and most recently, Emrelis (for lung cancer), bringing the total to five oncology therapies. Sales of the oncology segment accounted for over 12% of AbbVie's total revenues in first-quarter 2025.
ABBV has been pursuing both organic and inorganic strategies to drive this expansion. While Epkinly and Elahere were added to the portfolio through acquisitions or collaborations, Emrelis is the company's first internally developed solid tumor drug and also its first lung cancer therapy. Combined with steadily rising Venclexta sales, these newer additions have helped more than offset the fall in Imbruvica sales, which have been declining due to stiff competition from novel oral therapies. Approved last month, we expect Emrelis to start contributing to AbbVie's top line beginning third-quarter 2025.
The company also has an exciting and diverse pipeline of promising new therapies in both blood cancers and solid tumors. Notably, etentamig (formerly ABBV-383), a BCMA x CD3 bispecific antibody, is currently being evaluated in a late-stage study for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. ABBV is also developing another c-Met targeting ADC called Temab-A (formerly ABBV-400). This drug, being evaluated in a late-stage study for metastatic colorectal cancer, is also in mid-stage development for gastroesophageal cancer. AbbVie is also conducting label expansion studies on its approved products to further strengthen its oncology footprint.
Competition in the Oncology Space
Other large players in the oncology space are AstraZeneca AZN, Merck MRK and Pfizer PFE.
For AstraZeneca, oncology sales now account for nearly 41% of total revenues. Sales in its oncology segment rose 13% in the first quarter of 2025. AstraZeneca's strong oncology performance was driven by medicines such as Tagrisso, Lynparza, Imfinzi, Calquence and Enhertu (in partnership with Daiichi Sankyo).
Merck's key oncology medicines are PD-L1 inhibitor, Keytruda and PARP inhibitor, Lynparza, which it markets in partnership with AstraZeneca. Keytruda, approved for several types of cancer, alone accounted for more than 46% of Merck's total revenues in first-quarter 2025.
Pfizer's first-quarter oncology revenues grew 7% on an operational basis, driven by drugs like Xtandi, Lorbrena, the Braftovi-Mektovi combination and Padcev. The segment now accounts for over 27% of Pfizer's total revenues.
ABBV's Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates
Shares of AbbVie have outperformed the industry year to date, as seen in the chart below.
From a valuation standpoint, AbbVie is not very cheap. Based on the price/earnings (P/E) ratio, the company's shares currently trade at 13.99 times forward earnings, slightly lower than its industry's average of 14.81. The stock is cheaper than some other large drugmakers, such as Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, but is priced much higher than most other large drugmakers. The stock is also trading above its five-year mean of 12.43.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings has risen from $12.21 per share to $12.28, while that for 2026 has increased from $13.99 to $14.06 over the past 60 days.
AbbVie currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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