On its fourth quarter earnings call Wednesday, AbbVie CEO Robert Michael called oncology and neuroscience “underappreciated” areas of focus for the pharma.
AbbVie’s immunology blockbusters Skyrizi and Rinvoq continue to steal the spotlight despite the pharma’s efforts to direct it toward their oncology and neuroscience portfolios and pipelines.
Of the company’s $61.1 billion in sales for 2025, the immunology portfolio accounted for nearly half of that total, with Skyrizi bringing in $17.5 billion, Rinvoq $8.3 billion and declining giant Humira topping it off with another $4.5 billion. Despite those large numbers—up 18.3% across the entire immunology portfolio—AbbVie executives repeatedly emphasized other therapeutic areas already generating revenue.
“Beyond immunology, when you look at AbbVie, I think what’s underappreciated is both neuroscience and oncology,” CEO Robert Michael said on the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year earnings call Wednesday morning, repeating similar assertions made by AbbVie last month at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference.
He specifically highlighted Parkinson’s drug Vyalev, approved in late 2024. The therapy saw a 33% bump in sales in the fourth quarter, bringing in $183 million and $482 million total for the full year, Michael noted. “We are very excited for our emerging portfolio in Parkinson’s disease, which we believe remains underappreciated,” he said
AbbVie also stated its interest in diversifying its portfolio through the ever-burgeoning obesity space. The company has Phase I studies ongoing for ABBV295, an amylin analog acquired in a deal last year with Gubra, reading out later this year, and execs on the call said AbbVie would go back to the business development well for more obesity assets.
“We’re clearly taking a close look at what’s available out there, and if we see something that we feel is differentiated, we’ll pursue it,” Michael said. “We certainly have financial wherewithal strategically for the company.”
Despite the emphasis on these other areas, however, discussion on the call mainly centered on AbbVie’s two stalwart immunology drugs, set up to replace the declining behemoth Humira. The combination of Skyrizi and Rinvoq, which are approved to treat immunology indications including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, have exceeded Humira’s peak sales, which is “remarkable,” Michael said, given that the drugs have been on the market for eight years.
Executives batted away questions of the combo’s dominance with potential encroachment from other pharma giants like Johnson & Johnson’s Tremfya, which has a similar IL-23-based mechanism of action and has been garnering I&I approvals of its own, including in Crohn’s disease in 2025.
“Our compete level is extremely high,” in the immunology space, despite Tremfya’s increasing entry into the market, Chief Commercial Officer Jeffrey Stewart said, “and we’re very, very comfortable with the momentum that we’re going to continue to see with Skyrizi.”
