In late June of this year, biopharma giant AbbVie (ABBV) struck a definitive $2.1 billion deal to acquire Capstan Therapeutics, gaining access to cutting-edge tools in the fight against cancer. The move aligned with the pharma giant’s broader mission to diversify its portfolio in the wake of the massive HUMIRA “patent cliff,” which has threatened a significant portion of its revenue over the past year. Since May, the stock has risen 15%, which suggests bullish sentiment remains strong despite fears of future sales volumes.
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While SKYRIZI and RINVOQ have already done an impressive job backfilling that gap, the Capstan acquisition marks a bolder, more forward-looking chapter. With the ability to defend its Immunology stronghold while simultaneously going on offense with in vivo CAR-T therapies, I remain Bullish on ABBV.
AbbVie Turns HUMIRA’s Cliff Into a Launchpad
AbbVie’s navigation of the HUMIRA patent cliff stands as a case study for the pharmaceutical industry. At its height, HUMIRA was a $20+ billion-a-year juggernaut. But once exclusivity expired and biosimilars hit the market in 2023, sales quickly eroded—dropping to $7.1 billion last year and just $1.18 billion in Q2 2025, according to TipRanks data.
Behind the scenes, however, AbbVie was busy building an Immunology powerhouse. With SKYRIZI and RINVOQ—blockbusters in conditions like plaque psoriasis and Crohn’s disease—the company pulled off one of the most seamless handoffs in pharma history. The duo brought in nearly $6.5 billion in Q2 alone, more than filling the void left by HUMIRA’s decline.
AbbVie Bets on In Vivo CAR-T
AbbVie’s Oncology segment is barely treading water, with revenue up just 2.6% year-over-year amid a brutally competitive market. That’s the backdrop for its $2.1 billion Capstan acquisition—a bet that could reposition AbbVie for the next wave of innovation. The deal’s key assets include CPTX2309, an anti-CD19 in vivo CAR-T therapy now in early clinical studies, along with Capstan’s broader preclinical and discovery-stage pipeline. The obvious question: what makes in vivo CAR-T so compelling in an already crowded oncology landscape?
Today’s standard of care, ex vivo CAR-T, requires extracting a patient’s T-cells, engineering them outside the body, and then reinfusing them after rounds of lymphodepleting chemotherapy. This approach, while effective in hard-to-treat cancers, is slow, logistically complex, costly, and accessible only through a handful of specialized centers. Even so, ex vivo CAR-T has proven commercially viable—Gilead’s (GILD) YESCARTA, for example, brought in $1.6 billion in 2024.
Capstan’s in vivo platform aims to leapfrog these barriers. By reprogramming T-cells directly inside the patient, it offers an “off-the-shelf” therapy that can be manufactured at scale, stored, and administered like a conventional biologic. If the science holds, this could slash costs, expand access, and mark the next frontier in cancer treatment—precisely the kind of bold play AbbVie needs to reignite its Oncology growth.
If It Works, AbbVie Becomes an Oncology Powerhouse
Make no mistake—this is a bold wager, and success is far from guaranteed. Capstan’s in vivo CAR-T therapies remain largely untested in humans, and trials could expose serious risks such as off-tissue toxicity, cytokine release syndrome, or immunogenicity. With ex vivo CAR-T therapies already established and effective, the bar for adoption will be high, and failure could mean limited commercial traction.
That said, Capstan’s platform is undeniably forward-looking. If it delivers, AbbVie won’t just defend its Immunology stronghold—it could emerge as a true oncology powerhouse.
Is AbbVie a Good Stock to Buy?
On Wall Street, ABBV sports a consensus Moderate Buy rating based on 13 Buy, five Hold, and zero Sell ratings in the past three months. ABBV’s average stock price target of $220.47 implies an upside potential of ~5.5% over the next twelve months.
Piper Sandler analyst David Amsellem, echoing Wall Street’s bullish tone, recently reiterated a Buy rating on AbbVie. He pointed to the company’s “minimal exposure to major loss-of-exclusivity risks through the end of the decade” and highlighted growth drivers like SKYRIZI and RINVOQ.
In Oncology, ELAHERE—acquired in late 2023—is already showing traction, while AbbVie’s neuromodulator franchise remains anchored by Botox, which Amsellem called “a durable asset with significant growth potential.” Taken together, his remarks underscore the strength of AbbVie’s broad, diversified portfolio.
Ambitious AbbVie Doubles Down on T-Cell Innovation
AbbVie’s acquisition of Capstan is a strategically savvy—though undeniably high-risk—move. On the surface, conditions like T-cell lymphomas and psoriasis may appear unrelated, but at their core, both stem from T-cell dysfunction. Seen through this lens, AbbVie’s bet not only reinforces its leadership in immunology but also extends its reach into oncology with significant force. Still, there’s no “free lunch”—many multi-billion-dollar wagers on early-stage drugs ultimately fail to deliver.
For now, AbbVie enjoys the “benefit of the doubt” from investors. Its stock has climbed 117% over the past five years, even while navigating the HUMIRA patent cliff. But that track record also comes with lofty expectations: AbbVie trades at a non-GAAP P/E of 19.47, roughly a 13.5% premium to its health care peers. Should its pipeline bets stumble, the stock could face outsized punishment. Until there’s evidence to suggest otherwise, though, it’s full steam ahead for this pharmaceutical powerhouse.