AbbVie Inc. (ABBV, Financial) presented the results of two studies in which the researchers tested Imbruvica (ibrutinib) on lymphoblastic leukemia patients at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) 53rd Annual Meeting in Chicago on June 5.
According to AbbVie, the results of the first clinical trial – the Resonate study phase 3 – show Imbruvica’s (ibrutinib) safety and efficacy on patients chronically affected by difficult to treat lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic leukemia (SLL).
Fifty-nine percent of this group of patients treated with Imbruvica – a Bruton's tyrosine kinase used as a drug to treat B cell cancersand developed and marketed by AbbVie’s Pharmacyclics LLC with Janssen Biotech Inc. – showed a 44-month median period free survival before the disease started to progress again. The overall response rate of these patients to the treatment with Imbruvica was 91% while the rate of patients who completely responded to the treatment with AbbVie’s Imbruvica was 9%.
Imbruvica is a BTK inhibitor. BTK stands for Bruton's tyrosine kinase and is an enzyme that plays an important role in the development of the B cells, which are lymphocytes, a class of white blood cells.
According to AbbVie, the results of the second study – the Resonate 2 study, phase 3 – found AbbVie’s Imbruvica compared to chlorambucil, a chemotherapy medication traditionally used to treat patients affected by CLL, reduced either the risk of the disease’s progression or the risk of death in patients chronically affected by lymphocytic leukemia and who did not undergo any previous treatment. This result, achieved after a one-year treatment of CLL patients with Imbruvica and who had not been exposed to any previous treatment, suggests Imbruvica can target those cells responsible for chronic lymphocytic leukemia’s survival and its proliferation better than any other traditional chemotherapy medication.
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia, also known as chronic lymphocytic leukemia, is a disease characterized by the presence of an excessive amount of white blood cells – called lymphocytes – in the blood, bone marrow, lymph nodes and spleen. These lymphocytes look normal but do not reach the maturation level needed to eradicate infections and defend the body as they should.
When lymphocytes increase in number, there is less room available for other healthy white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets, which consequently decrease. The decline in red blood cells causes anemia while, as a result of fewer platelets, blood does not clot normally. Therefore, patients with a decreased number of platelets are subject to hemorrhagic or hematological events.
AbbVie reports 20,000 people are diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia every year.  The company says more than 25,000 CLL patients in the U.S. have been treated with Imbuvica since its approval in 2014.
In 2016, Imbruvica sales accounted for nearly 7.2% of AbbVie’s total revenue. Revenue from Imbruvica’s commercialization in the U.S. came in at $1.58 billion. From collaboration, the company made revenue of $252 million. Revenue from the commercialization of Imbruvica grew 143% between 2015 and 2016.
Imbruvica’s revenue came in at $551 million for the first quarter, which represents 8.4% of the company's total revenue for the quarter and a 44.6% increase on a year-over-year basis.
AbbVie is currently trading around $68.88 per share with a price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 17.88 and a price-book (P/B) ratio of 21.96.
Analysts forecast an EPS of $5.53 for the full year and a forward P/E ratio of 10.65. These two estimates lead to a value of $58.90. The analysts’ average target price per share is $72.28 and the recommendation rating is 2.4 out of 5. The recommendation rating ranges between 1.0 (Strong Buy) and 5.0 (Sell).
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stock mentioned in this article.
