AbbVie Pharmaceuticals S.A.
Company Profile
We’re a company that takes on the toughest health challenges. But we do more than treat diseases—we aim to make a remarkable impact on people’s lives. We are AbbVie, a highly focused research-driven biopharmaceutical company.
AbbVie may have been founded in 2013, but our roots run deep. In 2013, we became a separate company from Abbott, though we share a common legacy and strong prospects for future success.
Our name represents our connection to the past and the future. When we became our own company, AbbVie formed a new kind of enterprise—a biopharmaceutical company. We blend the stability, global scale, resources and commercial capabilities of a pharmaceutical company with the focus and culture of a biotech.
Today, our ~29,000 employees around the world focus on delivering transformational medicines and therapies that offer significant patient benefits.
What We Do
Our ~29,000 employees in 70+ countries are scientists, researchers, communicators, manufacturing specialists and regulatory experts located around the globe. We come up with new approaches to addressing today’s health issues—from life-threatening illness to chronic conditions.
At this time 28 million patients in 170+ countries treated by AbbVie’s medicines every year, while 1.37+ million patients enrolled in AbbVie patient support programs globally.
We target specific difficult-to-cure diseases where we can leverage our core R&D expertise to advance science. To this end we now have 22 primary research and manufacturing facilities around the world. We’re constantly working to create solutions that go beyond treating the illness to have a positive impact on patients’ lives, on societies—and on science itself.
Patients: Making an impact on more lives
To understand the patient journey, we collaborate with peers, academics, clinical experts, front-line practitioners, governments and advocacy groups. This fuels us to develop and deliver new solutions that truly make a difference.
Science: Finding better solutions to the world's toughest challenges
Research and innovation are the cornerstones of our business. We advance leading-edge science through a dynamic and collaborative approach. This enables us to find better solutions for treating the world’s most challenging diseases. We focus on discovering, developing and delivering drugs in therapeutic areas where we have proven expertise—and can make an impact. This includes:
Culture: Fostering innovation and discovery
We are a diverse, inclusive organization with people who reflect the thousands of communities we serve around the world. For all of us, working at AbbVie is more than a job. It’s a purpose that leads to better lives for other people, across the world. When the stakes are as high as a patient’s well-being, the best ideas must rise to the top, no matter where they begin.
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Recognitions
Awarded for our efforts in diversity, corporate responsibility practices and business performance. See below indicative recognitions and more at Recognition
Diversity, Leadership and Engagement.
- FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For 2018
- 2018 Best Employers for Diversity
- World’s Best Workplaces 2017
- Working Mother 100 Best Companies 2017
- Top 50 Companies for Diversity 2017
- Corporate Equality Index 2018
- America’s Best Employers 2016
- Science Top Employer 2016
Corporate Responsibility
- 2018 Gold Class Sustainability Award
- 2018 Best Workplaces for Giving Back
- 2017 FTSE4Good
- 2017 CDP
- 2016 Patient View Corporate Reputation
- 2016 International Medical Corps Global Citizen Award
Business Performance
- 2017 Barron’s 500
- Fortune 500
AbbVie Greece has been ranked, for the fourth consecutive year in the top 3 positions of Best Place to Work (#1 for 2015, #2 for 2016, #1 for 2017, #3 for 2018). Also included in the list of Fortune’s Most Admired Companies for Greece in the past 2 years.
More about us
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RESPONSIBILITY
Operate Responsibly: OUR COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
We pledge to cultivate an ethical, transparent and inclusive culture. This includes focusing on the health, welfare and financial well-being of our employees around the world.
Ethical Culture
We aim to improve lives and pledge to do so in a transparent and sustainable way.
Quality & Safety
We are dedicated to quality and safety—both of our products and in our workplace.
Sustainable Supply Chain
We’re reducing the impact we have on our environment, while managing costs and maintaining continuity of supply.
Responsible Research
AbbVie is committed to ethical, responsible research in all aspects of our business.
Healthy Environment
As part of our commitment to a healthy environment, we work diligently to ensure environmental stewardship across our value chain.
Great Employer
We foster a culture that is inclusive and celebrates a wide range of opinions and ideas.
Impacts from Medicine Donation Program
Highlights of select medicine donation programs in 2015.
AbbVie Supplier Code of Conduct
We view our suppliers as partners in delivering on our commitment to having a remarkable impact on patients’ lives and expect that they will act accordingly.
Contribute to Communities: IT TAKES ALL OF US TO SOLVE THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST CHALLENGES
At AbbVie, we are passionate about collaborating with others to do more in our communities.
Transformative Education
Through our partnerships, we are working to narrow the achievement gap in science and literacy.
Engaged Employees
Our employees are committed to their local communities, leveraging their expertise and time to have a remarkable impact.
Stakeholder Engagement
We seek to do more and to do better by working with stakeholders to improve the world we share. Together, we target unmet needs to support patients across the globe.
Improve Health Outcomes: TARGETING UNMET NEEDS AND ENHANCING ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE
Patient Support
To address today’s health challenges, we will go beyond medicine to deliver innovative, holistic health care solutions to patients.
Capacity Building
We’re collaborating with partners to build health system capacity and infrastructure to increase access to care globally.
Medical Education
We support programs aimed at increasing the understanding of scientific, clinical and health care issues that improve patient care.
Innovative Research
Research and innovation are the cornerstones of our business as a global biopharmaceutical company.
Neglected Diseases
We work hard to address neglected diseases that disproportionately affect the world’s poor and marginalized populations. Our most experienced scientists are collaborating with partners to address these diseasesand the AbbVie Foundation supports programming in seven countries.
Our Impact on Neglected Diseases
Week of Possibilities
We encourage engagement in the communities where we live and work. During our annual volunteering event, Week of Possibilities, we encourage our employees to participate in various nonprofit organizations and help their local communities across the globe. We also provide year-round opportunities for employees to take part in volunteer activities that align with our Corporate Responsibility commitments. In 2017, more than 7,200 employees volunteered in more than 57 countries across the globe. We worked to improve and refurbish libraries, renovate buildings, landscape and garden, gather and collect books for schoolchildren, assemble furniture, paint walls, make repairs and much more.
Protecting Our Most Valuable Resources
We are committed to reducing our impact on the environment. Over the last two years we reduced total carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 13 percent.
Read examples of the AbbVie Foundation’s impact worldwide.
Target Partners & Collaborations
OUR PARTNERSHIPS MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE
We partner to achieve two important outcomes: deliver innovative medicines and make a remarkable impact on people’s lives.
We build on our internal expertise, transforming breakthrough science into effective medicine.
Our Scientific Focus
Our core R&D areas of interest include immunology, oncology, neuroscience and hepatology complemented by additional focus areas such as cystic fibrosis and women’s health. We discover and develop new drugs in therapeutic areas that we believe will make the most significant impact on the disease and its management.
See more at Areas of Interest
AbbVie Ventures
As tomorrow’s innovations are developed by today’s entrepreneurs, we invest in transformational scientific opportunities aligned with our core R&D interests to gain access to next-generation science and build relationships with proven and emerging scientific leaders. AbbVie Ventures is focused on early-stage opportunities in immunology, oncology and neuroscience.
Additional Collaboration Opportunities
1. Emphasizing Collaborative Innovation
At AbbVie, we recognize and appreciate the power of ideas and research outside our organization. Our Open Innovation Program provides opportunities for external collaborators to access tool compounds to conduct preclinical research. The tool compounds cover multiple therapeutic areas and mechanisms of action and are provided free of charge.
Visit the Open Innovation Portal to learn more.
2. Contract Manufacturing
When you choose AbbVie Contract Manufacturing, you get so much more than a typical CMO engagement. Through the partnership, you gain integrated access to scientific expertise and processes that have taken many small molecule and biologic medicines through commercialization and on to the forefront of patient care.
AbbVie is committed exclusively to drug development and the global supply and management of life-changing therapies. We have the expertise to optimize your project, coupled with the agility and flexibility that support efficient processes. Rely on AbbVie Contract Manufacturing for deep scientific expertise and world-class manufacturing capabilities.
- Investigator-Initiated Studies
We’re committed to supporting investigator-initiated research that promotes the advancement of medical and scientific knowledge involving AbbVie’s products and therapeutic areas of interest.
The research from investigator-initiated studies may expand our understanding of our products and their potential applications. Plus, it may improve patient care and spark new ideas for further disease-related research.
The AbbVie IIS Program provides an opportunity to academic and community-based physicians and researchers worldwide interested in conducting their own research to apply for research support.
Visit the IIS Submission Portal to learn more or to apply.
Technology and R&D
By investing in groundbreaking technologies and platforms, we aim to drive innovation within our pipeline and deliver better solutions to our patients.
A Time of Extraordinary Change
The last two decades saw an unprecedented expansion in the study of human biology, with advances in human genetics, cancer genomics, stem cell biology, bioinformatics and systems biology all paving the way for new therapies. In the future, advances not only in medicinal chemistry but in areas such as protein engineering, antibody drug conjugates, bispecifics and immunotherapies will bring new targets into reach.
Protein-Based Technologies
One way to enhance the therapeutic potential of antibodies is to combine, or “conjugate,” them with small molecule drugs, which enhances the antibody’s ability to target a specific antigen. Another way to boost the therapeutic potential of antibodies is to use a technology that allows the generation of a dual specific antibody to target two antigens (also called a dual-variable domain [DVD] antibody).
Bispecifics
Our bispecific platform is a technology that holds great promise. In the past, this has been referred to as DVD platform. In fact, this platform is capable of producing a wide range of different bispecific formats and DVD is just a small portion. These bispecific formats have a broad range of protein binding and biologic characteristics.
In oncology, we view our bispecific platform as a path to new biology rather than simply to combination therapy. For example, we are studying the uses of our bispecifics to enhance the performance of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). In preclinical systems, we can show that a bispecific that binds to two portions of the same molecular target is taken up in the cancer cells better than a traditional ADC. This could deliver a greater toxin load, thereby enhancing efficacy.
Similarly, a bispecific that binds to two molecular targets from the same cancer cell can be used to increase tumor specificity, allowing us to prosecute targets that had some degree of expression in normal tissue. With our bispecific platform, we are able to create a wide range of protein constructs, ultimately leading to new biology with different mechanisms of action.
Innovative, Targeted Drug Delivery
We are exploring several new methods for delivering medicines that are more precise and impactful. From reducing the effect of chemotherapy on healthy cells to opening new avenues for treating neurodegenerative diseases, our research on innovative, targeted drug delivery aims to change the way disease is treated.
ADCs
ADCs represent a proven technology platform that delivers a therapeutic agent directly to where it’s needed using precise targeting of an antibody. An ADC takes a highly potent toxin, one that is too potent to be administered systemically, and couples it to a monoclonal antibody so that it can be delivered directly to cancer cells, sparing normal tissue. The idea behind ADCs is not new, but it is only recently that the progress in target identification, antibody engineering, linker chemistry and toxin technology have come together to make this a promising platform. Our strength in discovering and developing highly specific monoclonal antibodies and our experience in small molecule chemistry and analytics make ADCs a strong focus area of development for AbbVie.
Targeting cancer stem cells
Cancer stem cells are the roots of a tumor. They initiate and perpetuate tumor growth and are more resistant to chemotherapy and radiation therapies. Cancer stem cells are the tumor cells that metastasize, causing cancer to spread throughout the body. With work initiated by Stemcentrx, our therapies are engineered to target cancer stem cells, subsequently delivering a potent drug that can kill them. We believe that targeting and eliminating cancer stem cells will enable long-term patient survival.
Harnessing the Power of the Body
As we better understand human biology, we can also leverage the body to uncover new ways to fight disease. Cancer and immune-mediated diseases are two areas where recent research is showing how new solutions might come from within.
Immuno-oncology and immunotherapies
In oncology, we want to turn up the immune system to attack tumors, while for immunological diseases, we want to turn it down because it’s doing damage by attacking normal tissue inappropriately. The key to treating both types of diseases may involve immunotherapies. For example, there is a constant battle between the immune system and tumors. Tumors use various mechanisms to avoid destruction by immune cells. One of the ways they do that is by engaging checkpoint receptors on immune cells. Checkpoint molecules are key off switches in immune cells and their activation blocks an immune response to target what is identified as “foreign” in the body. When tumors engage these checkpoints, it makes it difficult for immune cells to identify the tumor as something they need to attack, thereby dampening their activity. The biggest breakthrough in immunotherapy in recent years came when scientists discovered that disrupting these checkpoint receptors could activate immune cells and result in antitumor responses. The antitumor activity of checkpoint inhibitors teaches us that tumors can be controlled by the immune system, but checkpoint blockade is only one approach. We have been looking at various approaches beyond checkpoint inhibitors for several years.
Studying the gut microbiome
There has been an increased emphasis on the gut microbiome in recent years. The bacteria and microorganisms in our gastrointestinal tract that perform critical functions like digestion and vitamin production, and the ability to easily reprogram bacteria to perform other functions are changing the way researchers tackle serious diseases. Together with Synlogic, we are studying the gut microbiome to develop new medicines for treating inflammatory bowel disease.
The Science of Manufacturing
Our medicines are only as effective as our ability to deliver them. We continue to look for new ways to ensure our discoveries can be manufactured and delivered to patients safely and with the highest quality.
Biologics manufacturing
Success in biologics manufacturing is largely measured by product reproducibility. Through sophisticated cell line development, cell culture manufacturing and quality control, we overcome the complexity of large molecule manufacturing to deliver consistent drug performance. Our expertise in biologics is rooted in having developed the first fully human monoclonal antibody. Today, our biologics manufacturing team continues to be leaders in the field, providing scientific support for all aspects of our manufacturing. Our team partners with R&D and our contract manufacturing clients to scale up and transfer new products into commercial manufacturing sites, troubleshoot technical problems associated with product manufacturing or laboratory tests and identify and implement process enhancements to increase yields or throughput. We support chemical and fermentation drug substances, sterile and non-sterile drug products, analytical test methods and devices as enablers of drug delivery.
Meltrex technology, an innovative drug formulation
A common problem in drug research occurs when a medicine won’t dissolve in water and, therefore, cannot be absorbed in the body. We found a way to use the same melt extrusion techniques that have been used in industrial settings for centuries and apply them to medicine, opening possibilities for the formulation of new drugs to treat patients with a variety of diseases, from viral infections to cancer.
Our Pipeline
Advanced medicines that demonstrate both strong clinical performance and strong economic value. See more at Pipeline
