How Will AbbVie's Oncology Drugs Aid Upcoming Q2 Results?

AbbVie ABBV has been expanding its oncology portfolio over the past few years. While the company was originally focused on two blood-cancer drugs — Imbruvica and Venclexta — it has since built a broader franchise that now also includes solid tumors. The franchise now features five therapies, including Epkinly (for lymphoma), Elahere (for ovarian cancer), and most recently, Emrelis (for lung cancer). Sales from the oncology segment accounted for over 12% of AbbVie’s first-quarter revenues, which grew 6% year over year.

Our model estimates the second-quarter 2025 sales for the overall oncology segment to be $1.6 billion, representing a 2% year-over-year decline. While Venclexta, Epkinly and Elahere are likely to have contributed to growth during the quarter, these gains might have been more than offset by the continued decline in Imbruvica sales amid rising competition from novel oral therapies. As Emrelis was approved in mid-May, we expect AbbVie to record modest revenues from the drug’s sales during the quarter.

Though AbbVie’s oncology portfolio is contributing meaningfully, investor focus will largely remain on the company’s immunology franchise, which houses three flagship drugs, namely Humira, Rinvoq and Skyrizi. All eyes would be on the magnitude of their sequential growth and market share gains when the company reports second-quarter results on July 31.

Competition in the Oncology Space

Other bigger players in the oncology space are AstraZeneca AZN, Merck MRK and Pfizer PFE.

For AstraZeneca, oncology sales now account for nearly 41% of total revenues. Sales in its oncology segment rose 13% in the first quarter of 2025. AstraZeneca’s strong oncology performance was driven by medicines such as Tagrisso, Lynparza, Imfinzi, Calquence and Enhertu (in partnership with Daiichi Sankyo).

Merck’s key oncology medicines are PD-L1 inhibitor, Keytruda and PARP inhibitor, Lynparza, which it markets in partnership with AstraZeneca. Keytruda, approved for several types of cancer, alone accounted for more than 46% of Merck’s total revenues in the first quarter of 2025.

Pfizer’s first-quarter oncology revenues grew 7% on an operational basis, driven by drugs like Xtandi, Lorbrena, the Braftovi-Mektovi combination and Padcev. The segment now accounts for over 27% of Pfizer’s total revenues.

ABBV’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

Shares of AbbVie have outperformed the industry year to date, as shown in the chart below.

From a valuation standpoint, AbbVie is not very cheap. Based on the price/earnings (P/E) ratio, the company’s shares currently trade at 14.21 times forward earnings, a tad lower than its industry’s average of 15.16. The stock is cheaper than some other large drugmakers, such as Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, but is priced much higher than most other large drugmakers. The stock is currently trading above its five-year mean of 15.16.

While the EPS estimates for 2025 have declined from $12.28 to $12.08, the same for 2026 has increased from $14.05 to $14.06 over the past 30 days.

AbbVie currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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