AbbVie's Humira patent cliff (2023)
AbbVie's Humira, long the world's top-selling drug with peak annual sales near $21 billion, lost US exclusivity in January 2023 as the first biosimilars launched following years of patent settlements. AbbVie had spent years building successors Rinvoq and Skyrizi.
Biosimilars quickly took share, but Rinvoq and Skyrizi grew fast, reaching combined annual sales above $10 billion by 2024.
Demonstrated that a successor strategy can work if replacements are ready years before the cliff.
Shows the playbook Sanofi is attempting: build next-generation replacements for the same diseases before the patent expires.
