AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV), a biopharmaceutical company spun off from Abbott Laboratories, has delivered a total return of 494% over the past decade, driven largely by its exceptional ability to extend market exclusivity for key drugs through strategic patent protection.
The company’s management of patent life has enabled reliable profit generation and attractive shareholder returns. AbbVie’s quarterly dividend has surged 221.6% over the past ten years, significantly outperforming industry averages. Its recent dividend yield stands at an appealing 3.1%.
Originally spun off in 2013 to mitigate Abbott’s exposure to the patent cliff of Humira, AbbVie successfully delayed biosimilar competition in the U.S. until 2023—far beyond the typical exclusivity period of about ten years post-approval. Humira, launched in 2003 for autoimmune conditions such as arthritis and psoriasis, was protected not only by composition-of-matter patents but also by a dense web of additional patents.
With Humira’s sales declining, newer products Skyrizi and Rinvoq have rapidly filled the revenue gap. In the first half of 2025, sales of Skyrizi—first launched in 2019—jumped 69% year over year to $7.8 billion. Rinvoq, also launched in 2019, generated $3.7 billion in sales during the same period. Despite Humira’s revenue falling by more than half, AbbVie’s total revenue increased by 8% in the first half of the year.
Both Skyrizi and Rinvoq are injectable therapies, whose complex manufacturing and delivery systems may offer additional opportunities to extend market exclusivity. If AbbVie can replicate the patent strategy used for Humira, shareholders could continue to benefit from both dividend growth and capital appreciation in the coming decade.
