After watching Scott Gottlieb, M.D. of the FDA comments regarding the rebate rule changes and a warning tweet on biosimilars, AbbVie investors are bailing out. But the industry watchers claim that they don’t need to be.

Gottlieb, M.D. went after drugmakers for spoiling the entry of biosimilar competitors and vowed to stop letting them get away with it. The Office of Management and Budget is also reviewing a proposal for removing protections to drug-company rebates which impacts pricing.

A short tweet labelled, “AbbVie, the next great drug short”. The tweet continued, “Gottlieb's comments for biosimilars and the removal of safe harbour is a DIRECT hit on AbbVie’s abuse of Humira,” where Citron predicts that AbbVie’s share price would drop to $60 in a year’s time.

Josh Schimmer, the Evercore ISI analyst claimed, “Changing rebate rules may not be very simple, and predicting response to any change is equally challenging; the current rules will create its own element of nuances and unpredictability.”

The FDA initiatives speed up biosimilar approval and its adoption might not threaten AbbVie’s Humira either. AbbVie had already signed an agreement with Humira copycats regarding the delay in their market entry until 2023.

Schimmer pointed out, “their track record in biopharma is rather mixed; the AbbVie story is all about new product cycles anyways.”

Josh Schimmer further added, “Given where valuations are in the large cap biotech group, strong adoption curves for new products may be enough to drive shares higher.”