«AbbVie's Baa1 rating reflects the
blockbuster success of Humira and the
product's good growth outlook, offset by higher leverage and greater
product concentration risk than
pharmaceutical peers,» says Michael Levesque, analyst at Moody's Investors Service.
In this week's Science, Vederas and his student Jesse Li explain that this shift from natural
products, along with tighter safety requirements and a focus on
blockbuster drugs, is a key reason why the
pharmaceutical pipeline is drying up.