Can New Cancer Drug Emrelis Drive AbbVie's Oncology Franchise?

AbbVie ABBV continues to build momentum with its oncology franchise, with the recent FDA approval for Emrelis. This antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) was granted accelerated approval last month for previously treated non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in adults with high c-Met overexpression (OE).

This marks a milestone for AbbVie, making Emrelis the company's first internally developed solid tumor drug, as well as its first lung cancer therapy. The drug also gives AbbVie a unique edge as it is currently the only approved treatment for this patient population. Per the company, c-Met OE is found in 25% of advanced EGFR wild-type NSCLC patients and is associated with a poor prognosis. Approximately half of these patients have high c-Met OE.

We expect AbbVie to start recording the drug’s sales from the third quarter of 2025 and our model estimates that the drug could generate $28 million in sales this year. Emrelis also diversifies the company’s oncology franchise, which has primarily been focused on hematologic cancers. Initially anchored by Imbruvica and Venclexta, the portfolio now consists of five therapies, with newer drugs like Elahere and Emrelis expanding into solid tumors.

Emerging Rivals to ABBV’s Emrelis

While AbbVie holds a first-mover advantage with Emrelis in the given indication, other large-cap pharma companies like AstraZeneca AZN and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals REGN are also evaluating their respective drugs for a similar target.

Regeneron is evaluating davutamig (REGN5093), an investigational ADC, which is currently being evaluated in a mid-stage study for NSCLC. Per Regeneron, its drug is designed to target two distinct MET epitopes, offering a differentiated approach to targeting MET OE.

AstraZeneca is also developing its investigational ADC, AZD9592, in phase I studies targeting c-MET-driven solid tumors. Though AstraZeneca has a more dominant position in the oncology space compared to the above companies, it lags behind them in this specific indication.

ABBV’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

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

From a valuation standpoint, AbbVie is not very cheap. Going by the price/earnings (P/E) ratio, the company’s shares currently trade at 14.37 times forward earnings, just slightly lower than 14.95 for the industry. The stock is cheaper than some other large drugmakers like Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, but is priced much higher than most other large drugmakers. The stock is also trading above its five-year mean of 12.38.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings has declined from $12.30 per share to $12.28, while that for 2026 has increased from $13.97 to $14.05 over the past 60 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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