On Wednesday, November 20, Nick Abbott pitched AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) as an addition to our Healthcare holdings. AbbVie is a pharmaceuticals company that discovers, develops, and manufactures both biopharmaceuticals and small molecule drugs. The company originated in 2013 as a spin-off from Abbott Laboratories’ (NYSE:ABT) research-based pharmaceuticals business. AbbVie’s four primary therapeutic areas are immunology, oncology, virology, and neuroscience. The growing success of the company’s blockbuster oncology drug, Imbruvica, and the resolution of the global IP-related litigation with Amgen over their biosimilar to Humira, the best-selling drug worldwide in 2016, shores up AbbVie’s topline for the near-term. This will allow AbbVie to continue funding the expansion of their pipeline and focus their attention on driving strong commercial execution of new product launches. AbbVie’s pipeline is one of the most prized in major pharmaceuticals (ranked #3 by Evaluate Pharma) and is projected to produce six new blockbuster drug therapies (Venclexta, Mavyret, Rova-T, Elagolix, Upadacitinib, and Risankizumab) by 2025. In addition to topline growth, AbbVie has shown great progress in expanding operating margins and returning value to shareholders through share repurchasing programs and dividends.
Nick motioned to purchase 150 shares of ABBV at market price and 7 shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), funded by the sale of 200 shares of XLV, The Health Care SPDR ETF. The purchase of 7 shares of Johnson & Johnson was put forth to counter the erosion of our exposure to the stock by selling out of XLV for which JNJ is the largest holding. Johnson & Johnson also has an impressive late-stage pipeline, ranked 5th in the industry by EvaluatePharma, has a share of the sales of Imbruvica with AbbVie, and has a strong and consistent dividend yield. The motion passed unanimously.