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NORTH CHICAGO, Ill.—AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV), which completed its planned acquisition of Allergan on May 8, reported Friday that its worldwide net revenues in the second quarter totaled $10.4 billion, an increase of 26.3 percent on a reported basis (a decrease of 5.3 percent on a comparable operational basis, which the company said was due to the COVID-19 pandemic). On the bottom line, AbbVie reported a loss of $739 million in its second quarter, which ended June 30. This compares with earnings of $741 million in the year-ago period. For the first half of 2020, AbbVie reported earnings of $2.27 billion, a decrease of 29 percent compared with earnings of approximately $3.2 billion in 2019’s first half.

In its eyecare business segment (which includes the Allergan treatments Restasis, Lumigan and Alphagan), worldwide sales in Q2 totaled $417 million in the first half, which marked a 4.7 percent decrease on a comparable operational basis, according to the financial announcement. U.S. sales totaled $274 million in the first half, which was basically flat with the year-ago period in 2019. Restasis sales in the U.S. totaled $138 million, an increase of 0.8 percent.

In its announcement, AbbVie noted that its acquisition of Allergan “significantly expands and diversifies AbbVie's revenue base with new therapeutic areas, enhances long-term growth potential, and enables investment in innovation for each of its therapeutic categories.

“AbbVie delivered another strong quarterly performance, ahead of our guidance. The adverse impact from COVID-19 on legacy AbbVie was less than expected, demonstrating the robustness and resiliency of our key brands, and new patient starts have stabilized and started to recover,” chairman and chief executive officer Richard A. Gonzalez said in the announcement. “The integration of Allergan is going well, with a strong recovery in the aesthetics portfolio and accretion ahead of expectations.”

In highlighting recent events, AbbVie noted that it and partner Molecular Partners received from the FDA a complete response letter to the Biologics License Application for abicipar pegol, a novel, investigational DARPin therapy for patients with neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). The letter from the FDA indicated that the rate of intraocular inflammation observed following administration of abicipar pegol 2mg/0.05 mL resulted in an unfavorable benefit-risk ratio in the treatment of nAMD. AbbVie also withdrew its regulatory application with the EMA for abicipar in nAMD and plans to meet with the FDA and EMA to discuss their comments and determine next steps.