Piper Jaffray analyst Christopher Raymond raised his price target for AbbVie to $92 from $90 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. A new survey of 100 rheumatologists fielded by Piper's partner Spherix Global Insights indicates that Rinvoq uptake appears to be tracking meaningfully ahead of expectations, Raymond tells investors in a research note. While doctors see Rinvoq as meaningfully differentiated versus other JAKs, the famous "AbbVie halo" also appears to be at work here as rheumatologists explicitly cite the company's stewardship of this drug as a key reason for prescribing, adds the analyst.

AbbVie announced positive topline results from LEVEL UP, an open-label, efficacy assessor-blinded head-to-head Phase 3b/4 study that evaluated the efficacy and safety of upadacitinib versus dupilumab in adults and adolescents with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis who had an inadequate response to systemic therapy or when use of those therapies was inadvisable. In the LEVEL UP study, upadacitinib showed superior efficacy versus dupilumab in the primary endpoint, demonstrating that a significantly higher proportion of patients simultaneously achieved both a 90% or greater reduction in Eczema Area and Severity Index and a Worst Pruritus Numerical Rating Scale of 0 or 1 at Week 16.