Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

ABT was down 5% today (a big move for a Big Pharma) because of the shortfall in 1Q09 Humira sales ($1.02B) relative to 4Q08 ($1.35B). The Humira drop-off was entirely in the US, where quarter-over-quarter sales declined from $751M to $410M. Ex-US, Humira sales increased quarter-over-quarter from $600M to $614M.

The market evidently isn’t buying ABT’s explanation that much of the QoQ decline in US Humira sales was due to inventory destocking. Yet the company’s guidance for full-year growth in worldwide Humira sales is still 15-20% (down from 25%), and that ain’t bad.