AbbVie’s Botox faces demand issues as prices soar

Health care reporter Anjalee Khemlani outlines how inflation and supply and demand issues are putting the squeeze on AbbVie's Botox treatments.

Video Transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: A Botox boom during the pandemic has all but faded with the filler that is inflation. Anjalee Khemlani here with that story. Anj, what are we learning?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: That's right. Good one there, Dave.

DAVE BRIGGS: Thank you. Thank you.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: That is right. We've got AbbVie reporting today that there is, in fact, a slowdown in customer use of fillers and Botox, specifically lowering guidance for the year, down $600 million to $5.3 billion-- still not a bad number-- instead. And they do expect this to be a shorter term impact. They expect that customer confidence will increase in a short period of time, just like it did after the 2008, 2009 recession.

Also, the company is facing a patent cliff for its blockbuster drug, Humira. So that is another thing that they have on the books for next year, the impact there. And that of course, we know, was the whole reason why they merged with Allergan back in 2020. So everything combined, kind of an uncertain day in terms of the quarter for them, but looking a little bit more positive out in the future.

DAVE BRIGGS: All right, Anjalee Khemlani, thanks so much for the appreciation of my jokes. No one laughs at my stuff, Anj, so.