AbbVie has a lofty goal for 2025 — and it could stoke the beleaguered AbbVie stock.
The immunology powerhouse known for big-name drugs like Humira and Skyrizi, is eyeing expanding its reach in cancer treatments. Last year, AbbVie's three immunology drugs accounted for nearly 49% of the company's total sales. In 2025, AbbVie hopes to grow its cancer portfolio markedly with the approval of the first solid-tumor cancer drug it developed in house.
That drug, telisotuzumab vedotin, or Teliso-V for short, is an antibody drug conjugate. Think of these like smart bombs for cancer. They send toxic chemicals directly to targets that show up on tumor cells, limiting the damage to nearby healthy tissue.
AbbVie isn't alone in the space. Battle lines are being drawn by high-profile rivals eager to take a chunk of the estimated $19.8 billion market by 2028, according to researchers from MarketsandMarkets. Pfizer spent $43 billion last year to acquire ADC-maker Seagen. Merck is paying Japan's Daiichi Sankyo up to $5.5 billion to jointly develop several ADCs. GSK is nearing approval in small-cell lung cancer.
Their goal isn't small.
"Our goal is to replace chemotherapy," Pedro Valencia, AbbVie's vice president of solid tumor pipeline strategy and execution, told Investor's Business Daily. "Instead of giving big, big doses of mild poison. We give little doses of really toxic poison. But it's the same poison. It's the same mechanism of action."
AbbVie Stock: Expanding In Solid Tumors
A small handful of ADCs have gained Food and Drug Administration approval. That includes Elahere, an approved ADC AbbVie acquired with ImmunoGen for $10.1 billion. Elahere treats ovarian, fallopian tube and peritoneal cancer by targeting the folate receptor alpha that shows up on those tumor cells.
This year, Elahere is expected to generate $471 million in sales for AbbVie, according to FactSet. In 2025, that could grow more than 49% to $703 million. Teliso-V is expected to notch its first sales next year with $38 million growing to $150 million in 2026 and $300 million in 2027.
AbbVie has a handful of ADCs that came from its acquisition of ImmunoGen. But Teliso-V could mark an important milestone for AbbVie. If approved, it would be the first homegrown AbbVie drug developed by the company's own researchers that treats a solid-tumor cancer. The FDA is considering it as a treatment for non small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
AbbVie's solid-tumor pipeline is a decade old. It's taken that long to near approval, says Valencia, because developing ADCs is tricky. First, researchers have to find a target — usually a protein — that shows up on tumor cells but not broadly elsewhere in the body. Then, they have to come up with a way to link the toxic payload to the antibody that locks onto the target.
"You're threading the needle here," he said. "You want to get a linker that is as stable — meaning it's not just shedding off toxic payload — but is not so stable that it's not releasing the cargo. It tends to be almost an engineering optimization effort where you think about, 'OK, what is the best antibody, the best linker and the best payload?' That balance is not easy."
But once you figure it out, it's a repeatable process, he says.
85% Of Lung Cancer Patients
Non small-cell lung cancer, where Teliso-V is being developed, is a massive market. About 85% of lung cancer cases are NSCLC.
Towards Healthcare, a market researcher, estimates this portion of the lung cancer market will grow to $21.5 billion by the end of 2033. Other estimates are even bigger, ranging from $36.9 billion by 2031 to $59.8 billion by 2030.
Another experimental ADC from AbbVie could treat non small-cell lung cancer and metastatic colorectal cancer. Early data shows 78% and 38% of patients, respectively, showed tumor shrinkage. A third drug targets small-cell lung cancer, which accounts for about 15% of lung cancer cases, and led to 60% tumor shrinkage.
The company is also working to move Elahere earlier into the treatment paradigm. Elahere is approved for patients who've undergone at least one previous treatment. But AbbVie hopes to eventually gain approval for Elahere in previously untreated ovarian cancer patients.
"We gave it to patients who've had two to three prior treatments and no more options," Valencia said of the SCLC treatment. "Sixty percent of those patients had high tumor shrinkage. ... They have no other treatments, and we're giving them more life."
AbbVie Stock Is Struggling
AbbVie stock remains under pressure, however.
Shares slumped almost 13% on Nov. 11 after the company's experimental schizophrenia treatment failed in two midstage studies. The stock still hasn't recovered.
Today, AbbVie stock trades below its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, according to MarketSurge. Coming up against those ceilings could prove to be a challenge.
Shares also have a low IBD Digital Relative Strength Rating of 30, meaning AbbVie stock trades in the lowest one-third of all stocks when it comes to 12-month performance. Still, AbbVie is one of the biggest drugmakers. In terms of market cap, it ranks second behind Novo Nordisk in the Medical-Ethical Drugs industry group.
Follow Allison Gatlin on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @IBD_AGatlin.
