Humira drives Abbott Q4 results

Sales of anti-inflammatory drug Humira (adalimumab) helped Abbott Laboratories post strong sales and earnings growth in Q4 of 2011.

Revenues from Humira increased 15.89% to $2.18 billion and helped overall pharmaceutical sales climb 6.7% to $4.78bn in the quarter.

Miles D. White, Chairman and CEO, Abbott, said that despite “another challenging year” the company “again delivered leading performance”.

An increase in sales of Humira helped Abbott record net income of $1.62bn (+12.3%) with group sales also up 4.1% to $10.38bn.

But sales of ‘established pharmaceuticals’, which includes branded generics outside the US, dropped 4.6% to $1.39 billion. Sales of HIV drug Kaletra (lopinavir/ritonavir) were also down 15.6% to $288 million. TriCor (fenofibrate) and TriLipix (fenofibric acid) also saw revenue fall 4.3% to $409 million.

However, the news was better for prostate cancer therapy Lupron (leuprolide) which rose 4.0% to record sales of $208 million and for Synthroid (levothyroxine) which saw revenue increase by 2% to $163 million.

Abbott, which recently revealed plans to split into two separate companies, says it is now “on track” to complete the switch by the end of 2012.