AbbVie Inc, a research-based pharmaceutical company, said one of its experimental drugs has improved symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in mid-stage studies. The company now has scrapped its plan to buy rights to a similar treatment from Belgium's Galapagos NV.

The positive results from the phase-2 trial and the company's decision to move the drug into phase 3 indicates that it is all prepared to maintain its market share even after Humira's patent expires at the end of 2016.

AbbVie's Humira has been the world's best-selling drug since years. Its best-in-class status is due to its widespread use in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that affects almost 1.3 million Americans.

Humira is not the cure for the rheumatoid arthritis, but it is very effective in controlling the symptoms of the condition. During phase 3 trials, up to 53.4% of patients receiving Humira after failing to improve on DMARDs achieved a 20% or greater improvement in ACR criteria, or ACR20.

Humira's represents the lion's share of AbbVie's total annual sales. In the first quarter, Humira accounted for $3.54 billion of AbbVie's $5.48 billion in sales.

Seeing Humira's importance to AbbVie, it is not very surprising that the company is investing heavily in new generation of rheumatoid arthritis drugs in an attempt to maintain its market share when Humira's patent protection ends.

ABT-494 is one of AbbVie's most promising Humira successors. According to its makers, the drug could potentially offer significant benefits to Humira that could allow it to become a top seller only if phase 3 results back up phase 2 performance.

AbbVie's corporate headquarters is located in Abbott Park, in North Chicago, Illinois.
Manufacturing facilities

AbbVie operates 13 manufacturing facilities located in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Puerto Rico, Singapore and United States.

"Galapagos management can negotiate another deal with a key rheumatoid arthritis player and advance filgotinib quickly," Morgan Stanley analyst Matthew Harrison said in a note.