AbbVie profit beats estimates as Humira, Botox sales weather hit from rivals

 AbbVie Inc beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit on Friday, helped by a smaller-than-expected decline in sales of its blockbuster drug, Humira, and strong demand for Botox amid stiff competition.

Investors have been keeping a close eye on falling sales of arthritis drug Humira, which was until recently the world's top-selling treatment. More than half a dozen biosimilars hit the U.S. market over the last year, hurting the drug's sales.

Humira's sales fell 41% to $3.30 billion in the fourth quarter, but beat estimates of $3.28 billion. Its U.S. sales plunged 35% to $12.16 billion in 2023.

Humira sales also fell less than expected in the third quarter as it maintained favorable positions on insurance drug coverage lists, but a large pharmacy benefit manager, CVS Health, said last month it will remove the drug from some of its lists.

AbbVie has been counting on newer immunology products Skyrizi and Rinvoq to help fill Humira's sales decline. On Friday, AbbVie raised its 2027 forecast for sales of the two drugs to $27 billion, from $21 billion earlier.

For 2024, AbbVie forecast an adjusted profit in the range of $11.05 to $11.25 per share. Analysts on average were expecting a profit of $11.24, according to LSEG data.

The outlook includes a 32 cent hit from its acquisitions of drug developers ImmunoGen and Cerevel Therapeutics last year.

Rinvoq sales of $1.26 billion beat expectations of $1.17 billion, while Skyrizi sales of $2.39 billion were in line with estimates.

Botox brought in sales of $1.49 billion, ahead of combined estimates of $1.43 billion.

Botox has been facing increased competition from newer anti-wrinkle injections from Revance Therapeutics, Evolus and others.

AbbVie reported a quarterly adjusted profit of $2.79 per share, beating estimates by 2 cents.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/abbvie-profit-beats-estimates-humira-123952648.html

Bristol Myers Squibb results top expectations as newer drugs help fuel growth

 After rocky year, drugmaker looks to acquisitions to boost momentum

Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) on Friday reported fourth-quarter results that beat analysts' expectations, helped by portfolio stalwarts like the blood thinner Eliquis as well as strong growth among newer drugs.

The drugmaker reported fourth-quarter net income of $1.762 billion, or 87 cents per share, down from $2.022 billion, or 95 cents per share, in the year-earlier period. Adjusted earnings per share came to $1.70, down 7% from a year earlier but ahead of the FactSet consensus of $1.55. Revenue totaled $11.477 billion in the quarter, up 1% from a year earlier and topping the FactSet consensus of $11.192 billion.

For the full year 2024, Bristol Myers Squibb said it expects sales growth in the low single-digits and adjusted earnings per share of $7.10 to $7.40, ahead of analysts' estimates.

Among Bristol Myers' top-selling products, growth in sales of blood thinner Eliquis and cancer drug Opdivo helped offset declining sales of multiple myeloma treatment Revlimid, which is facing generic competition.

Eliquis, one of 10 drugs selected for the first round of Medicare price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act, generated $2.87 billion in sales in the fourth quarter, up 7% from a year earlier and slightly ahead of analysts' expectations.

Revlimid sales fell 36% from a year earlier, to $1.45 billion in the fourth quarter.

Bristol Myers' new product portfolio accounted for $1.072 billion in sales in the quarter, up 66% from a year earlier. Melanoma treatment Opdualog and anemia drug Reblozyl helped fuel that growth, but sales of the CAR-T cell therapy Abecma fell 20%, to $100 million.

The company's partner on Abecma, 2seventy bio Inc. (TSVT), said earlier this week that it is pivoting to focus exclusively on the development and commercialization of the cell therapy and is selling its research-and-development pipeline to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN).

With analysts watching for a reset after a rough 12 months, as the shares have dropped more than 30%, Bristol Myers has been on a shopping spree lately. In December, the company struck deals to buy radiopharmaceuticals company RayzeBio Inc. (RYZB) as well as Karuna Therapeutics Inc. (KRTX), which has a key experimental schizophrenia treatment, KarXT. A regulatory decision on KarXT is expected in September.

Last month, the company closed its acquisition of cancer drugmaker Mirati Therapeutics Inc.

https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20240202158/bristol-myers-squibb-results-top-expectations-as-newer-drugs-help-fuel-growth

Schadenfreude: O'Keefe video indicates Democrats know there is no escape from Biden and Harris

 By Monica Showalter

For all the scattered talk about President Obama's wife, Michelle, replacing near-senile Joe Biden on the Democrat ticket for president, investigative reporter James O'Keefe has come up with an undercover video of a high ranking White House official indicating it's probably not going to happen:

According to the Daily Wire:

James O’Keefe released new video Wednesday from a sting operation in which he talked to a White House official who offered insight into private White House deliberations about myriad issues concerning President Joe Biden and the 2024 election, including the mental decline of the president and widespread dissatisfaction with Vice President Kamala Harris.

The guerrilla journalist said he met with Charlie Kraiger, a cybersecurity policy analyst and Foreign Affairs desk officer in the Executive Office at the White House, earlier this month while “under cover” with his hair dyed and fake eye glasses. The two were at a restaurant in the Washington, D.C. area, with drinks on the table on what appears to have been premised as a date.

...

In response to questioning by O’Keefe, Kraiger acknowledged concerns about Biden’s mental health and suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris is being kept on as his 2024 running mate because of her sex and race despite low approval numbers.

Asked by O’Keefe if Biden will indeed end up being the nominee, Kraiger said, “Yes, and [Kamala Harris] will be the vice president nominee,” adding, “There was a debate about removing her from the ticket, but sadly they didn’t.”

“She’s not popular, but you can’t remove the first black lady to be vice president from the godd*mn presidential ticket,” said Kraiger. “Like what kind of message are you going to send to like African-American voters? How would you spin that? People would be like what the f***? Like she’s a woman and she’s multiracial.”

When O’Keefe pressed Kraiger about Biden suffering from what O’Keefe described as “dementia,” Kraiger said, “He’s definitely slowing down.”

“I think they need to get rid of him or her,” Kraiger said. “But no one in modern history has ever said, like, ‘We’re not going to renominate the president for a second term.’”

He also said that based on his White House experience, he knew that Michelle Obama was not interested in becoming president, not after what her husband "went through."(That echoes the sentiment of pundit Dan Bongino, who served in the Secret Service in the White House and similarly believed she was not interested).

What does that tell us?

That the Democrats are stuck, and know they are stuck, with running Joe Biden as their presidential nominee, and Kamala Harris as their vice presidential nominee.

That's got to the be most miserable thing in the world for them, knowing they have a lemon and can't trade it in for a model that works.

They are stuck with Tweedledum and Tweedledee and all they can do is tread water in the hopes of Biden dropping dead or pulling out on his own, and Harris somehow exits the picture or gets knocked out on corruption charges, and Michelle Obama is not a contender. Whom they can possibly put their hopes into is far, far away into the future.

They rigged Joe Biden in over Bernie Sanders and now they have to sit in the results of their own machinations.

And President Trump is waiting in the wings.

Too bad about that for them. 

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/02/schadenfreude_okeefe_video_indicates_democrats_know_there_is_no_escape_from_biden_and_harris.html

US Jobs Report to Show Slower Hiring Pace After Annual Revisions

 

• Adjustments could affect Fed outlook, Bloomberg Economics says
• January hiring may again be largely in government, health care

A monthly US jobs report due Friday will probably show a slower pace of hiring in 2023 following annual revisions, according to Bloomberg Economics.

The report is also likely to show employers added 160,000 workers to payrolls in January, with hiring continuing to be concentrated in government and health care, Bloomberg economists Anna Wong and Stuart Paul wrote Thursday in a preview of the release.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-02/us-jobs-report-to-show-slower-hiring-pace-after-annual-revisions