Lountzis Asset Management Comments on Abbvie

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Mar 21, 2014

ABBVIE (ABBV, Financial), spun off from Abbott, represents their research-based proprietary pharmaceutical business and is led by its highly profitable Humira franchise. Humira makes up approximately 50% of revenues and over 70% of profits. While AbbVie is focused on growing its pipeline, the reality is Humira, the leading rheumatoid arthritis drug, will continue to drive the revenue and profit growth for AbbVie until some of the experimental drugs they are working on such as its Hepatitis C virus drug gains FDA approval and enters the market. As a result, we are reviewing our holding of AbbVie at this time given its enormous concentration on one drug. While it continues to lead in many areas and it continues to grow around the world, it remains a concern for us. AbbVie’s revenues in 2013 exceeded $18.8 billion with operating earnings of $5.7 billion.

From Lountzis Asset Management 2013 Annual Letter