Biosimilar competition to AbbVie’s Humira is eroding profits, but company says it has confidence in pipeline

Shares of AbbVie Inc. slipped 0.5% in intraday trade on Thursday, despite the drugmaker reporting first-quarter earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street expectations and raising its full-year outlook.

As expected, sales of the company’s ABBV, +0.45% best-selling drug Humira fell in the first quarter to $4.446 billion, a 5.6% drop from a year ago. Humira’s patent expired in Europe late last year, and the drug now faces biosimilar competition abroad from rival companies like Mylan NV MYL, +1.35% and Amgen Inc. AMGN, +0.55% International sales of Humira, which is used to treat a number of autoimmune conditions, plummeted 28% in the first quarter.