Barclays still likes AbbVie into 2025 despite schizophrenia failures

Barclays analyst Carter Gould keeps an Overweight rating on AbbVie (ABBV) after the company disclosed that both of its registrational studies of emraclidine for schizophrenia failed to meet their primary endpoints. Emraclidine’s failure removes a “compelling mid-to-late-stage driver” for the company, the analyst tells investors in a research note. However, the firm still likes the shares into 2025, citing AbbVie’s commercial portfolio upside and “differentiated” earnings growth versus peers. Nonethless, today’ update “represents negative optics” after the company’s $9B acquisition of Cerevel and removes emraclidine as a mid-to-long-term blockbuster revenue driver and potentially central piece of the neuroscience franchise, contends Barclays.