Richard Gonzalez on interest expense
From Abbvie (NYSE: ABBV) - Q4 2023 Earnings Call · · Business Presentations
“We expect adjusted net interest expense of $2.1 billion which includes the partial year cost in 2024 to finance the immunogen and Cellectis transactions. We expect to generate free cash flow of approximately $18 billion in 2024 which includes roughly $1.9 billion in SkyRizzy royalty payments.”
On , Richard Gonzalez, Executive Chairman at AbbVie Inc, spoke about interest expense during Abbvie (NYSE: ABBV) - Q4 2023 Earnings Call on Business Presentations.
About Richard Gonzalez
Richard Gonzalez, executive chairman of AbbVie, has been involved in discussions regarding the company's financial performance and drug pricing. On the company's Q4 2023 earnings call, Gonzalez stated that AbbVie's growth platform, excluding Humira, delivered full-year sales growth of more than 8% and that the company expects a return to robust growth in 2025. He also noted that AbbVie had received an initial offer on the cancer drug Imbruvica as part of a pricing process by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), with a final price expected by September 1, 2024. Gonzalez has previously defended the company's patenting practices, stating that AbbVie patents innovation it believes is meaningful, and has acknowledged that the company spends about $4 billion annually on marketing and advertising. Gonzalez has also faced scrutiny from lawmakers regarding drug pricing and patent strategies. In a 2021 congressional hearing, Representative Katie Porter questioned him about AbbVie's price increases for Imbruvica and the company's spending on stock buybacks and dividends, which Gonzalez said totaled $13 billion in buybacks and $50 billion in dividends from 2013 to 2018. In another hearing, Representative Peter Welch questioned Gonzalez about AbbVie's use of product enhancements to extend patent protection, which Gonzalez said can result in maintaining pricing power. Gonzalez has also been questioned about his knowledge of the inventor of Humira, telling Representative Ro Khanna that he did not know who invented the drug, which Khanna noted was Nobel laureate Gregory Winter.