Market Place
The pharma industry clearly recalibrated itself in 2023, turning its focus away from Covid and onto two of the biggest threats to human health – obesity and cancer. The top lines of the major pharma companies reflect this shift in focus.We
always knew that Pfizer’s record US$ 100 billion revenue for 2022 wasn’t sustainable. Even though Pfizer’s 2023 sales were lower by nearly 42 percent against its 2022 sales, the New York-headquartered drugmaker managed to retain its pole position. The two main reasons behind its ‘top of the charts’ sales of US$ 58.5 billion were Pfizer’s record nine new molecular entity approvals by the US
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the launch of its vaccine for
respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).Johnson & Johnson came second with sales of US$ 54.8
billion (excluding its consumer business and MedTech units). AbbVie took bronze despite Humira being subject to biosimilar competition
and Merck maintained its fourth position. Roche nabbed the fifth position from Novartis (which stood sixth). Bristol Myers Squibb maintained its position at seven, as did
AstraZeneca (eighth) and Sanofi (ninth). And Eli Lilly bumped into the tenth spot, knocking out
GSK.View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top Drugs in 2023 by Sales (Free Excel Available)Keytruda, Eliquis, Humira top charts; Novo’s Ozempic debuts top 10 list at number fourMerck’s Keytruda became the number one selling drug in the world, a position that was held
by AbbVie’s Humira for long, and Pfizer’s Comirnaty in the Covid years. This
oncology drug raked in a whopping US$ 25 billion, with sales increasing 19 percent last
year. In fact, Keytruda accounted for 46.7 percent of Merck’s pharmaceutical sales, which grew 3 percent in 2023 to US$ 53.6 billion.At number two was
Pfizer and BMS’ anticoagulant Eliquis — it posted global sales of US$
18.95 billion (marking a
growth of 4
percent on 2022 sales). With
competition from generics, Humira’s sales fell by 32 percent to US$ 14.5 billion. As a result, this
blockbuster anti-rheumatic drug fell to the third rank.The
fourth spot was taken up by Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, the wonder drug that treats type 2
diabetes. Gilead’s Biktarvy, a med that treats HIV-1, saw sales jump 14 percent — from US$ 10.39 billion posted in 2022 to US$ 11.85 billion last year. This way, Biktarvy emerged as
the fifth largest selling drug of 2023.At
number six was Sanofi and Regeneron’s Dupixent. This allergic diseases med posted
11-figure sales in 2023, netting € 10.72 billion (US$ 11.59 billion) globally, a growth of 34 percent over
2022 numbers.At
number seven was J&J’s biggest blockbuster immunology drug Stelara that raked in US$ 11.3 billion in 2023. Coming a close eighth was Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine Comirnaty — its sales fell by over 70 percent to US$ 11.22 billion in 2023. At the ninth spot was Lilly and Boehringer’s diabetes drug Jardiance that saw a 27.7 percent increase in
total global sales at US$ 10.6 billion. And rounding off the list at number 10
is BMS’s Opdivo, a Keytruda rival. Opdivo hauled in US$ 10 billion
in total global sales in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 8 percent.View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top Drugs in 2023 by Sales (Free Excel Available)Driven by diabetes, obesity care meds,
Novo, Lilly post double-digit sales growthDemand
for diabetes and new weight-loss drugs catapulted Novo Nordisk to emerge as the most valuable public
company in Europe. Its net sales zoomed 31 percent to DKK 232.3 billion (US$ 33.75 billion) compared to DKK 177
billion (US$ 25.8 billion) in 2022. Net profit jumped 51 percent to DKK 83.68 billion (US$ 12.51 billion) in 2023 from DKK
55.5 billion (US$ 8.32
billion) in 2022 — the highest annual profit for the Danish drugmaker in over three decades.The
growth was driven by Ozempic, whose sales spiked 60 percent in 2023
to DKK 95.7 billion (US$ 13.91 billion), from DKK 59.8 billion (US$ 8.71 billion) the
year before.Rival
Eli Lilly’s revenue grew 20 percent in 2023 to US$ 34.1 billion from US$ 28.5 billion in 2022. Mounjaro turned out to be a star for the
Indianapolis drugmaker with its sales rocketing 970 percent in 2023 to US$ 5.16 billion. FDA also approved it to treat obesity
under the brand name Zepbound in November, which brought in additional
revenues of US$ 176 million.View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top Drugs in 2023 by Sales (Free Excel Available) GSK’s RSV jab makes strong debut; AbbVie’s immunology drugs post steep growthGSK’s Arexvy was the first RSV vaccine approved by the FDA. It made a strong debut — Arexvy contributed £ 1.2 billion (US$ 1.5 billion) to GSK’s sales in just four months.AbbVie posted another solid financial year.
Though the drop in Humira revenue was offset by two newer
immunology blockbuster drugs, Skyrizi and Rinvoq, the Illinois-headquartered drugmaker
did posted a marginal decrease in revenue of 6.4 percent to US$ 54.3 billion. However, revenue from Skyrizi soared 50 percent to US$ 7.8 billion,
while Rinvoq’s sales increased 57 percent to US$ 4
billion. AbbVie expects a combined US$ 16 billion from Skyrizi (US$ 10.5 billion) and Rinvoq (US$ 5.5 billion) sales in 2024. BMS attributed its 2 percent decrease in
revenue (of US$ 45 billion) to lower sales of Revlimid in the US due to competition from
generics. Sales of the multiple myeloma treatment dropped 39 percent to US$ 6.1
billion. Ophthalmology drug Eylea saw a drop in sales of
4 percent, at US$ 9.21 billion (from US$ 9.65 billion), as competition from Roche’s Vabysmo triggered a price cut by Regeneron. Vabysmo saw sales balloon 324 percent
from CHF 591 million (US$ 685.56 million) to CHF 2.4 billion (US$ 2.78 billion) in 2023.View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top Drugs in 2023 by Sales (Free Excel Available) Our viewAccording
to data analytics company GlobalData, GLP-1 agonist drugs (such as Ozempic and Mounjaro that treat type 2 diabetes) are slated to overtake PD-1 antagonists (such as oncology drugs
Keytruda and Opdivo) as the top-selling drugs on the market
in 2024. It estimates a robust compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.2
percent from 2023 to 2029 for GLP-1 drugs that seem to have more benefits
besides bringing down blood sugar levels (such as weight management, benefits
to the heart etc).The
market size for GLP-1 is likely to increase to US$ 105 billion by 2029. In
contrast, the data firm projects a CAGR of 4.7 percent in the PD-1 antagonist
market, with its market size projected to be around US$ 51 billion in 2029.
Given these projections, we are likely to see more movers and shakers in our
top 10 drug list this year.
Impressions: 1755
https://www.pharmacompass.com/radio-compass-blog/top-pharma-companies-drugs-in-2023-merck-s-keytruda-emerges-as-top-selling-drug-novo-lilly-sales-skyrocket-due-to-glp-1-drugs
#PharmaFlow by PHARMACOMPASS
25 Apr 2024
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In 2022, the pandemic continued to bring in a windfall for
pharmaceutical companies manufacturing Covid-19 products, with Pfizer’s total annual sales reaching
a record high by surpassing US$ 100 billion for the first time.AbbVie, despite not having any Covid products
in its portfolio, maintained its second position due to the sales of its blockbuster drug Humira and other medicines. Johnson & Johnson held
onto the third spot, while Merck experienced the most significant
change, climbing to the fourth position from seventh place in the previous
year. AstraZeneca also moved up a spot to the
eighth position. On the other hand, Novartis (fifth), Roche (sixth), BMS (seventh) and Sanofi (ninth) slipped in the rankings,
while GSK (tenth) retained its position.
There were no new entries in the top 10 in terms of pharmaceutical sales.View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top Drugs by Sales in 2022 (Free Excel Available)Pfizer retains top position
as Comirnaty, Paxlovid, together generate over US$ 56 billion In 2022, Pfizer’s Covid-19 products — vaccine Comirnaty and antiviral pill Paxlovid — generated combined sales of US$ 56.7 billion. With a haul of US$ 37.8 billion, Comirnaty comfortably
maintained its position as the top-selling drug for a second year in a row.
Paxlovid brought in US$ 18.9 billion in its first full year on the market, grabbing the number four spot.Moderna’s messenger RNA
Covid vaccine Spikevax generated US$ 18.4 billion in revenues, emerging as the
fifth largest drug by sales in 2022.View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top Drugs by Sales in 2022 (Free Excel Available) AbbVie’s Humira, J&J’s Stelara post impressive growth; BMS face revenue declineAbbVie’s cash cow Humira, the bestselling non-Covid
product in biopharma history, achieved sales of US$ 21.24 billion (partner Eisai reported another US$ 370 million) in 2022. While Humira brought in approximately 37 percent of the company’s total net revenues of US$ 58 billion in 2022, strong revenues from blood cancer drug Imbruvica, psoriasis treatment Skyrizi and rheumatoid arthritis med Rinvoq also contributed to AbbVie’s strong performance.J&J generated US$ 52.56 billion in 2022
revenues. Its pharmaceutical segment experienced an operational growth of 6.7 percent, driven by impressive
performance of key drugs such as Stelara for inflammatory diseases
and Darzalex for multiple myeloma.
Stelara, which generated US$ 10.2 billion in overall sales last year (a
growth of 6.9 percent), is expected to face
generic competition in the US as its
exclusivity is ending in 2023.BMS’ sales remained relatively
unchanged even though its blockbuster multiple myeloma drug, Revlimid, experienced a 22 percent
revenue decline due to generic competition. While Revlimid still generated
sales of US$ 9.98 billion (partner BeiGene reported another US$ 80 million) in 2022, two other drugs, anticoagulant Eliquis and cancer drug Opdivo performed well. Eliquis
generated US$ 11.8 billion in sales (partner Pfizer reported another US$ 6.5
billion), a 9.2 percent increase over 2021, while Opdivo achieved US$ 8.25 billion in sales (partner Ono Pharmaceuticals reported another US$ 1.05 billion). The drugmaker also introduced new products like Opdualag, Abecma and Reblozyl, which bolstered
its overall sales.View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top Drugs by Sales in 2022 (Free Excel Available)Merck expands use of blockbuster Keytruda; oncology drugs boost Astra’s revenueMerck’s blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda had a remarkable year,
achieving a significant year-on-year growth of 22 percent and generating US$ 20.9 billion in 2022 sales. This success propelled Keytruda to the third position among the top-selling drugs. Keytruda’s continuous expansion into new indications and treatment lines has solidified its position as a leading PD1 inhibitor, and is expected to maintain its momentum in 2023. Additionally, Merck’s Covid-19 pill Lagevrio recorded impressive sales of US$ 5.7 billion in 2022. Overall, at US$ 52 billion, the drugmaker posted spectacular
growth in sales of 22 percent.AstraZeneca also experienced an
impressive growth of 18 percent in 2022 to reach US$ 43 billion in revenue. The
growth was primarily driven by the success of its cancer treatments, with
blockbuster drugs like Tagrisso, Farxiga, Imfinzi, Lynparza playing a vital role. These drugs accounted for 35 percent of AstraZeneca’s overall revenue.View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top Drugs by Sales in 2022 (Free Excel Available)Newer
meds bolster Roche’s growth; Sanofi thrives with DupixentIn 2022, Roche experienced a sales growth of 2 percent at Constant Exchange Rate (CER) to reach CHF 45.55 billion (US$
49.8 billion). The company’s strong pharmaceutical sales were fueled by increasing demand for newer medicines, including Ocrevus (for multiple sclerosis), Hemlibra (for hemophilia A), Vabysmo
(for eye conditions), Evrysdi (for spinal muscular
atrophy) and cancer drug Tecentriq. In 2022, Sanofi recorded global sales of €43 billion (US$ 47.1 billion), representing a 7 percent growth at CER. The French drugmaker’s strong performance was driven by major drugs, particularly Dupixent and its vaccine franchise.
Dupixent brought in impressive sales of €8.3 billion (US$ 9.1 billion), marking a significant 57 percent increase over the previous year. Originally approved by the FDA in 2017 for atopic dermatitis,
Dupixent has expanded its applications to include moderate to severe asthma and
eosinophilic esophagitis, contributing to its continued growth. Sanofi expects
Dupixent to reach €10 billion (US$ 10.7 billion) in sales
in the current year.In July 2022, GlaxoSmithKline changed its name to GSK and demerged its consumer
healthcare business to form Haleon, thereby becoming a fully
focused biopharmaceutical company. The British drugmaker reported a modest 8 percent growth in revenue — at £29.32 billion (US$ 36.15 billion).View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top Drugs by Sales in 2022 (Free Excel Available)Our viewAs the pandemic wanes, 2023 could be a year of transition for many
drugmakers. Companies such as Pfizer, Moderna and AbbVie are implementing
significant changes to their business strategies. Pfizer foresees a substantial
decline in revenue, projecting a sharp drop of 33 percent with the reduced demand for
its Covid-19 products. AbbVie, on the other hand, anticipates a decline in
sales of its cash cow Humira due to increasing competition from biosimilars.
These drugmakers are turning to innovative therapies, new indications,
cost-cutting measures, acquisitions and partnerships to restrict the
anticipated drop in revenues and ensure sustained growth.Barring these drugmakers, several other big players shared
positive growth in the first quarter of 2023. While analysts predict Keytruda
and Dupixent to continue their strong growth, there is optimism surrounding diabetes and obesity drugs,
with Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy experiencing unprecedented
demand. Eli Lilly is also anticipating the US
approval of Mounjaro for obesity later this year.
All in all, we anticipate more changes in our list of top companies and drugs
for 2023!
Impressions: 5194
https://www.pharmacompass.com/radio-compass-blog/top-pharma-companies-and-drugs-in-2022-pfizer-breaks-us-100-billion-barrier-abbvie-s-humira-retains-second-spot
#PharmaFlow by PHARMACOMPASS
01 Jun 2023
Every year, the list of top pharmaceutical products and companies by sales sees some churn. But the year 2021 was a lot different — it saw the pharma industry landscape change dramatically. It was a
year when the industry was busy developing vaccines and therapies so that the
world could recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. And this resulted in many
drugmakers raking in billions of dollars in sales.
As a result,
the top company of 2020 in terms
of pharmaceutical sales — Roche — slipped to the number five spot, while Pfizer, which was at number eight in 2020 after
spinning off its generic business, moved up to the number one slot.
The year
proved to be a good one for pharmaceutical companies.
Interestingly, last year none of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies saw a decline in
their revenue.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top Drugs by Sales in 2021 (Free Excel Available)
Pfizer’s Comirnaty steals the show
The
company that reaped the maximum gains from its Covid vaccine was Pfizer.
Comirnaty (tozinameran) was the top selling pharmaceutical
product of 2021, posting global revenues of US$ 36.8 billion. This
messenger-RNA Covid-19 vaccine, developed along with its German partner BioNTech, catapulted Pfizer to the slot of the top company by sales in 2021. Pfizer’s global topline grew from US$ 41.7 billion in 2020 to US$ 81.3 billion in 2021.
In
2020, Pfizer was at
number eight, behind Roche, Novartis, GSK, AbbVie, J&J, Merck and BMS. In 2021, it took a lead of billions of dollars on all these companies. The second largest drug company by sales — AbbVie — was way down at US$ 56.1 billion in global revenues. In fact, Comirnaty has
become the fastest-selling drug in the history of the pharmaceutical
industry.
Back in
December 2020, when both Comirnaty and Moderna’s Spikevax had bagged the US Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization (EUA), there was a lot of uncertainty around how the promised doses would be delivered across the world. But both Comirnaty and Spikevax have proven to be a resounding success. Spikevax emerged as the third largest selling pharmaceutical product of 2021, bringing in US$ 17.7 billion for Moderna.
Analysts
expect both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to sell even more vaccines in
2022. The reasons are manifold. First, SARS-CoV-2 is able to mutate often, and
is unlikely to be eradicated in the near future, creating a need for booster
shots. Second, the younger age groups are still to get vaccinated.
Along with
Comirnaty, Pfizer is battling Covid-19 with its antiviral pill, Paxlovid. Though the sales of Paxlovid have nosedived of late, Pfizer expects
Comirnaty and Paxlovid to help the New York-headquartered drug behemoth achieve US$ 100 billion
in 2022 revenues.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top Drugs by Sales in 2021 (Free Excel Available)
AbbVie
moves up, sans Covid product; Roche slips to number five
With no
Covid-19 related products, AbbVie did fairly well in 2021 — it moved up from the number four spot in 2020 to number two position, thanks to its Allergan acquisition, cash cow Humira (adalimumab), the continued success of its
cancer drug Imbruvica (ibrutinib) and an increase in sale of its psoriasis treatment Skyrizi (risankizumab) by a whopping 85 percent in 2021. Humira brought in sales of US$ 21.2 billion for AbbVie in 2021. However, things may change soon, with biosimilars of Humira slated to enter the market in 2023. The years 2022 and 2023 are likely to be transition years for AbbVie, as it works to build the market for its Humira successors — Rinvoq and Skyrizi.
Roche
emerged as a big loser in 2021, as several copycats of its blockbuster drugs
hit the market. Copycats to Roche’s three blockbuster cancer drugs—Avastin, Herceptin and Rituxan—eroded US$ 4.9 billion (CHF 4.73 billion) from the company’s sales in 2021. A large chunk
of growth for Roche came from its multiple sclerosis med Ocrevus, hemophilia drug Hemlibra, inflammatory disease therapy Actemra and PD-L1 inhibitor Tecentriq. The pandemic resulted in
lower-than-expected sales of Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) due to fears around its
immunosuppressive effects.
Like Roche, Novartis also slipped last year. It fell from
number two in 2020 to the number four slot in 2021. Essentially, Novartis is
struggling with a relatively lackluster pipeline. It had sold its 33 percent stake in Roche last
year for US$ 20.7 billion. It plans to use that sum for acquisitions in order
to beef up its pipeline. The Swiss drugmaker has also drawn up a restructuring
plan that includes layoffs of thousands of employees.
Before the
pandemic, Merck’s Keytruda was touted as the drug that would overtake
Humira at the top in 2024. The checkpoint inhibitor has continued to grow
impressively, adding new indications and treatment lines. Keytruda is now used
in close to 40 indications. With US$ 17.2 billion in sales, Keytruda emerged as
the fourth largest selling drug of 2022.
Overall
though, Merck slipped from number six to the number eight slot. This was due to
the fact that Merck had spun out its women’s
health, biosimilars and established brands businesses into Organon. However, its Covid-19 antiviral pill — Molnupiravir — was able to compensate for the lost revenue. Though the FDA is yet to grant the drug a full approval (it bagged an EUA in December 2021), advance sales agreements helped it rack up US$ 952 million in sales in the fourth quarter.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top Drugs by Sales in 2021 (Free Excel Available)
BMS moves
up with Eliquis, Revlimid; J&J lands at number three
Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) moved up from number seven in 2020 to number six, thanks to two of its drugs that made it to top 10 — anticoagulant Eliquis at number five and oncology drug Revlimid at number six. However, Revlimid will soon face competition — four generic companies now have the approval to sell their versions of Revlimid (lenalidomide) after March 2022. Revlimid
sales are expected to drop from US$ 12.9 billion to just US$ 2.06 billion in
2026.
BMS posted
US$ 46.4 billion in global revenues, a nine percent increase from US$ 42.5
billion reported in 2020. In immuno-oncology, Opdivo
brought in US$ 7.52
billion in sales, while Yervoy drew in sales of US$ 2 billion
(an increase of 20 percent).
J&J’s pharma division brought in US$ 52.1 billion in revenues
last year, an increase of 14 percent over its revenues of US$ 45.6 billion
posted in 2020. Drugs like Darzalex (for multiple myeloma), Stelara and its Covid-19 vaccine brought in growth during 2021,
helping J&J move up from number five to the number three slot. J&J’s Covid-19 vaccine brought in US$ 2.4 billion in
sales.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top Drugs by Sales in 2021 (Free Excel Available)
GSK bags
approval for shingles vaccine; Takeda suffers setbacks
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) slipped four places — from number three in 2020 to number seven in 2021. Though GSK did not have a drug in the top 10, sales of GSK and Vir Biotechnology’s Covid-19 antibody treatment
sotrovimab helped produce a seven percent increase in its 2021 revenue. The British drugmaker also bagged a critical FDA approval — its vaccine to prevent shingles (herpes zoster), Shingrix, bagged the agency’s nod in July. GSK hopes to double the sales of Shingrix by 2026.
GSK is also undergoing a major transformation, and plans to demerge its consumer health unit this year. The unit generated revenues of £9.6 billion (US$ 13 billion) last year, and GSK sees the demerger as a necessary step to fuel growth through the development of new vaccines and specialty medicines.
Sanofi managed to retain its ninth slot, even as
its global turnover increased from US$ 39.3 billion (Euro 36.04 billion) to US$
41.6 billion (Euro 37.76 billion). It snapped up Kymab, Tidal Therapeutics, Translate Bio, Kadmon Holdings, Origimm Biotechnology and Amunix in deals that bolstered its presence in immunology, immuno-oncology and vaccines. Dealmaking is on the French drugmaker’s menu for 2022 and beyond, Sanofi’s CFO said at this year’s virtual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference.
AstraZeneca’s global revenues grew from US$ 26.6 billion in 2020 to US$ 37.4 billion in 2021. However, its rank fell from nine in 2020 to 10 in 2021.
AstraZeneca
wrapped up the US$ 39 billion acquisition of Alexion in July 2021. Alexion’s rare disease franchise—led by C5 inhibitors Soliris and Ultomiris—added an extra US$ 3.1 billion to Astra’s top line last year.
Takeda suffered several clinical and regulatory setbacks in 2021, which it labeled as an “inflection year.” For Gilead, sales of its Covid-19 antiviral Veklury brought in US$ 5.6 billion last year,
helping its revenues grow by 11 percent.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top Drugs by Sales in 2021 (Free Excel Available)
Our view
If anything,
the pandemic has taught us that change is the only constant. It has also taught
us that products can become blockbusters in a matter of a few months.
The industry
landscape continues to change. On the one hand, we are seeing people scrambling
to get Covid vaccines and booster shots, on the other hand, the FDA has limited the use of monoclonal antibodies, such as Eli Lilly’s bamlanivimab and etesevimab and
Regeneron’s REGEN-COV (casirivimab and
imdevimab), in treating Covid caused by the Omicron variant. The FDA has also pulled the authorization
granted to GSK and Vir Biotechnology’s antibody therapy this month,
citing data that suggested it was unlikely to be effective against the dominant
Omicron sub-variant.
And last
week, there was news that demand for Pfizer’s
antiviral pill Paxlovid has remained unexpectedly low. The supply
of Paxlovid, which reduced hospitalizations or deaths in high-risk patients by
around 90 percent in a clinical trial, has far outstripped demand in many
countries like the US, the UK and South Korea.
Though Pfizer is hopeful of crossing US$ 100 billion in revenue this
year, much depends on how the pandemic pans out and what new research has to
say about the novel coronavirus. A lot will change once the pandemic becomes endemic.
The first four months of 2022 tell us that vaccines like Comirnaty and Spikevax
will continue to perform well.
But two years down the line, our charts could look very different.
Impressions: 7956
https://www.pharmacompass.com/radio-compass-blog/top-pharma-companies-drugs-in-2021-covid-vaccines-pills-cause-churn-in-list
#PharmaFlow by PHARMACOMPASS
28 Apr 2022
Last
year, the pandemic impacted everyone’s life in one way or the other. It turned
the limelight on to the pharmaceutical industry, which stepped up efforts to
deliver treatments and vaccines for Covid-19. It was a year of challenges for
the drug
industry as it struggled to supply existing drugs and treat emergencies
amid disruptions in the way business was conducted the world over.
Unlike previous years when the top five drug companies largely remained unchanged, 2020 saw several movers and shakers. The acquisition of Allergan by AbbVie helped it enter the ‘top five’ list, while companies like Pfizer and Merck got edged out. Despite a 2 percent increase in revenues, Pfizer dropping out
of the top five was not a complete surprise as it spun-off its
Upjohn unit. The unit merged with Mylan to create Viatris, an entity
with over US $10 billion in revenues.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2020 (Free Excel Available)
Roche emerges as top drug company by global sales
The
top five list of global pharmaceutical companies by sales in
2020 was quite a mix of surprises. While Swiss major Roche topped the
ranking of global drug companies by pharmaceutical sales (with global revenues
of US$ 49.6 billion or CHF 44.532 billion), it also witnessed a sales decline
of 8 percent, which was partially an outcome of the Swiss franc gaining against
most currencies during the pandemic. Overall, competition from biosimilars and the Covid-19 pandemic had a negative impact on Roche’s
pharmaceutical sales in 2020. However, it witnessed strong sales growth
of newly launched medicines like Tecentriq, Hemlibra, Ocrevus, Perjeta and Kadcyla, which
helped in offsetting the CHF 5 billion (US$ 5.53 billion) impact of competition
from biosimilars.
At
the
second position was Swiss drugmaker Novartis, whose global sales (at US$ 48.7 billion) were marginally lower than Roche’s. Unlike the numero uno, Novartis’ pharmaceutical sales grew 4 percent, driven by cardiology drug Entresto that witnessed a 44 percent increase in revenues. While its
oncology unit and Sandoz’s biosimilars business also posted an increase in sales, Covid-19 negatively impacted demand, particularly for the company’s ophthalmology and dermatology operations and the retail operations of Sandoz. The year also saw Novartis’ gene therapy
Zolgensma, the world’s costliest drug, reach nearly US$ 1
billion in sales.
As
the British pound became a lot stronger against the US dollar, GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) witnessed a 3 percent increase in sales in constant currency terms and saw its group sales (£ 34.1 billion or US$ 47.27 billion) take the number three spot in US dollar terms. Strong sales performances
from key growth drivers in HIV, respiratory, oncology and consumer healthcare
offset disruptions from Covid-19. GSK’s consumer healthcare division reported over £10 billion (US$ 13.91 billion) in sales and the firm is on track to create new standalone biopharma and consumer healthcare companies in 2022.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2020 (Free Excel Available)
AbbVie’s international Humira sales
drop 13.6% due to biosimilars
AbbVie reported worldwide revenues of US$ 45.8
billion, an increase of 38 percent versus the previous year. This included US$ 10.3
billion in revenues from the Allergan acquisition,
growth in the immunology portfolio, and the continued strength of Humira in the US as
well as revenue growth from Imbruvica and Venclexta. Humira, the
best-selling drug since 2012, continued to dominate with US$ 19.83 billion in
sales, an increase of 3.5 percent as compared to 2019. While the
international sales of Humira dropped 13.6 percent due to competition from biosimilars, in the US sales increased as Humira is protected from biosimilar competition until 2023.
J&J’s
pharmaceutical division delivered a strong performance as its pharmaceutical
sales grew 8 percent to US$ 45.6 billion and contributed more than the combined sales of its other two units — consumer health and medical devices. This sales growth was largely attributed to primary operational drivers including Imbruvica and Stelara, which were
among the top 10 drugs by sales in 2020. J&J and AbbVie have an equal share
in the profits (and losses) from the sales of Imbruvica, which witnessed a
double digit increase in sales to US$ 9.4 billion. Similarly, J&J’s Stelara
reached US$ 8.0 billion in sales. J&J’s overall revenues grew by just 0.6 percent
to US$ 82.6 billion (including sales from its consumer health and medical
devices divisions). It will be interesting to see what J&J’s 2021
revenues look like as it benefits from the sales of its single-dose Covid-19
vaccine.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2020 (Free Excel Available)
Merck’s Keytruda on its way to becoming world’s best-seller
With AbbVie’s Humira beginning to face generic competition, Merck’s oncology
drug Keytruda continued to go from strength to strength posting a sales growth of 30
percent. Keytruda delivered more than US$ 14.4 billion in sales, almost a third
of the firm’s US$ 43 billion revenue. It’s only a matter of time before Keytruda becomes the world’s best-selling drug.
Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS)
reported worldwide revenues of US$ 42.5
billion in 2020. BMS’ products Revlimid and Eliquis reported
significant growth last year, and followed Humira and Keytruda in terms of sales. Eliquis, which is also promoted by Pfizer in some geographies,
had total sales of US$ 14.1 billion while Revlimid posted over US$ 12 billion
in sales. Revlimid, which BMS picked up through its acquisition
of Celgene, will face
limited generic competition sometime after March 2022. Furthermore, while BMS’ oncology
treatment Opdivo’s sales (US$
7.2 billion) declined by 3 percent compared to 2019, it remained one of the top selling drugs in 2020 (US$
7.9 billion) with a small portion of sales coming from Ono Pharma in Japan.
Sanofi reported
approximately US$ 43.6 billion (€36 billion) in net sales
for 2020, which rose by 3.3 percent at constant exchange rates even as some of
its flagship products’ sales declined due to generic and
biosimilar competition. Solid performances from Dupixent, vaccines and its
specialty care global business unit across all geographies, more than offset
lower sales.
In
the case of Gilead, while
products like Biktarvy in its HIV
portfolio witnessed a growth of over 50 percent to more than US$ 6 billion,
it was Gilead’s treatment for Covid-19 — remdesivir — promoted under the brand Veklury which went from no sales in 2019 to US$ 2.81 billion in sales in 2020.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2020 (Free Excel Available)
Our view
The
human health business of many companies was negatively impacted by the Covid-19
pandemic. However, operating expenses saw a reduction due to lower promotional
and selling costs, as well as lower R&D expenses.
This
year, as Covid vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, J&J and AstraZeneca are rolled out in more
countries across the world, they are expected to ring in significant
revenue contributions for these companies. For instance, Pfizer recently announced
that it expects US$ 26 billion in revenues from the sale of its vaccine
in 2021. Similarly, Moderna said it expects US$ 19.2 billion in sales from its Covid-19 vaccine this
year.
Given this scenario, the order of the top drug companies and the sales contribution of various drugs will change significantly in 2021. It seems likely that Pfizer’s vaccine will become the best-selling product by sales in 2021 and the American drugmaker will be back among the top five in the global drug companies by sales list.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2020 (Free Excel Available)
Impressions: 13065
https://www.pharmacompass.com/radio-compass-blog/top-drugs-and-pharma-companies-by-sales-in-2020
#PharmaFlow by PHARMACOMPASS
13 May 2021
Acquisitions and spin-offs dominated headlines in 2019 and the tone was set very early with Bristol-Myers Squibb acquiring
New Jersey-based cancer drug company Celgene in a US$ 74 billion deal announced on
January 3, 2019. After factoring
in debt, the deal value ballooned to about US$ 95 billion, which according
to data compiled by Refinitiv, made it the largest healthcare deal on
record.
In the summer, AbbVie Inc,
which sells the world’s best-selling drug Humira, announced its acquisition of Allergan Plc, known for Botox and other cosmetic
treatments, for US$ 63 billion. While the companies are still awaiting
regulatory approval for their deal, with US$ 49 billion in combined 2019
revenues, the merged entity would rank amongst the biggest in the industry.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2019 (Free Excel Available)
The big five by pharmaceutical sales — Pfizer,
Roche, J&J, Novartis and Merck
Pfizer
continued
to lead companies by pharmaceutical sales by reporting annual 2019 revenues of
US$ 51.8 billion, a decrease of US$ 1.9 billion, or 4 percent, compared to
2018. The decline was primarily attributed to the loss of exclusivity of Lyrica in 2019,
which witnessed its sales drop from US$ 5 billion in 2018 to US$ 3.3 billion in
2019.
In 2018, Pfizer’s then incoming CEO Albert Bourla had mentioned that the company did not see the need for any large-scale M&A activity as Pfizer had “the best pipeline” in its history, which needed the company to focus on deploying its capital to keep its pipeline flowing and execute on its drug launches.
Bourla stayed true to his word and barring the acquisition of Array Biopharma for US$ 11.4 billion and a spin-off to merge Upjohn, Pfizer’s off-patent branded and generic established medicines business with
Mylan, there weren’t any other big ticket deals which were announced.
The
Upjohn-Mylan merged entity will be called Viatris and is expected to have 2020
revenues between US$ 19 and US$ 20 billion
and could outpace Teva to
become the largest generic company in the world, in term of revenues.
Novartis, which had
followed Pfizer with the second largest revenues in the pharmaceutical industry
in 2018, reported its first full year earnings after spinning off its Alcon eye
care devices business division that
had US$ 7.15 billion in 2018 sales.
In 2019,
Novartis slipped two spots in the ranking after reporting total sales of US$
47.4 billion and its CEO Vas Narasimhan continued his deal-making spree by buying New
Jersey-headquartered The Medicines Company (MedCo) for US$ 9.7
billion to acquire a late-stage cholesterol-lowering
therapy named inclisiran.
As Takeda Pharmaceutical Co was
busy in 2019 on working to reduce its debt burden incurred due to its US$ 62
billion purchase of Shire Plc, which was announced in 2018, Novartis also purchased
the eye-disease medicine, Xiidra, from the Japanese drugmaker for US$ 5.3 billion.
Novartis’ management also spent a considerable part of 2019 dealing with data-integrity concerns which emerged from its 2018 buyout of AveXis, the
gene-therapy maker Novartis had acquired for US$ 8.7 billion.
The deal gave Novartis rights to Zolgensma,
a novel treatment intended for children less than two years of age with the
most severe form of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Priced at US$ 2.1 million,
Zolgensma is currently the world’s most expensive drug.
However,
in a shocking announcement, a month after approving the drug, the US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) issued a press release on
data accuracy issues as the agency was informed by AveXis that
its personnel had manipulated data which
the FDA used to evaluate product comparability and nonclinical (animal)
pharmacology as part of the biologics license application (BLA), which was
submitted and reviewed by the FDA.
With US$
50.0 billion (CHF 48.5 billion) in annual pharmaceutical sales, Swiss drugmaker
Roche came in at number two position in 2019
as its sales grew 11 percent driven by
its multiple sclerosis medicine Ocrevus, haemophilia drug Hemlibra and cancer medicines Tecentriq and Perjeta.
Roche’s newly introduced medicines generated US$ 5.53 billion (CHF 5.4 billion) in growth, helping offset the impact of the competition from biosimilars for its three best-selling drugs MabThera/Rituxan, Herceptin and Avastin.
In late 2019, after months of increased
antitrust scrutiny, Roche completed
its US$ 5.1 billion acquisition of Spark Therapeutics to strengthen its presence in
gene therapy.
Last year, J&J reported almost flat worldwide sales of US$ 82.1 billion. J&J’s pharmaceutical division generated US$ 42.20 billion and its medical devices and consumer health divisions brought in US$ 25.96 billion and US$ 13.89 billion respectively.
Since J&J’s consumer health division sells analgesics, digestive health along with beauty and oral care products, the US$ 5.43 billion in consumer health sales from over-the-counter drugs and women’s health products was only used in our assessment of J&J’s total pharmaceutical revenues. With combined pharmaceutical sales of US$ 47.63 billion, J&J made it to number three on our list.
While the sales of products like Stelara, Darzalex, Imbruvica, Invega Sustenna drove J&J’s pharmaceutical business to grow by 4 percent over 2018, the firm had to contend with generic competition against key revenue contributors Remicade and Zytiga.
US-headquartered Merck, which is known as
MSD (short for Merck Sharp & Dohme) outside the United States and
Canada, is set to significantly move up the rankings next year fueled by its
cancer drug Keytruda, which witnessed a 55
percent increase in sales to US$ 11.1 billion.
Merck reported total revenues of US$ 41.75 billion and also
announced it will spin off its women’s health drugs,
biosimilar drugs and older products to create a new pharmaceutical
company with US$ 6.5 billion in annual revenues.
The firm had anticipated 2020 sales between US$ 48.8 billion and US$ 50.3 billion however this week it announced that the coronavirus pandemic will reduce 2020 sales by more than $2 billion.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2019 (Free Excel Available)
Humira holds on to remain world’s best-selling drug
AbbVie’s acquisition of Allergan comes as the firm faces the expiration of patent protection for Humira, which brought in a staggering US$ 19.2 billion in sales last year for
the company. AbbVie has failed to successfully acquire or develop a major new
product to replace the sales generated by its flagship drug.
In 2019, Humira’s US revenues increased 8.6 percent to US$ 14.86 billion while internationally, due
to biosimilar competition, the sales dropped 31.1 percent to US$ 4.30 billion.
Bristol Myers Squibb’s Eliquis, which is also marketed by Pfizer, maintained its number two position
and posted total sales of US$ 12.1 billion, a 23 percent increase over 2018.
While Bristol Myers Squibb’s immunotherapy treatment Opdivo, sold in partnership with Ono in Japan, saw sales increase from US$ 7.57 billion to US$ 8.0 billion, the growth paled in comparison to the US$ 3.9
billion revenue increase of Opdivo’s key immunotherapy competitor Merck’s Keytruda.
Keytruda took the number three spot in drug sales that
previously belonged to Celgene’s Revlimid, which witnessed a sales decline from US$ 9.69 billion to US$ 9.4 billion.
Cancer treatment Imbruvica, which is marketed
by J&J and AbbVie, witnessed a 30 percent increase in sales. With US$ 8.1
billion in 2019 revenues, it took the number five position.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2019 (Free Excel Available)
Vaccines – Covid-19 turns competitors into partners
This year has been dominated by the single biggest health emergency in years — the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. As drugs continue to fail to meet expectations, vaccine development has received a lot of attention.
GSK reported the highest vaccine sales of all drugmakers with
total sales of US$ 8.4 billion (GBP 7.16 billion), a significant portion of its
total sales of US$ 41.8 billion (GBP 33.754 billion).
US-based Merck’s vaccine division also reported a significant increase in sales to US$ 8.0 billion and in 2019 received FDA and EU approval to market its Ebola vaccine Ervebo.
This is the first FDA-authorized vaccine against the deadly virus which causes
hemorrhagic fever and spreads from person to person through direct contact with
body fluids.
Pfizer and Sanofi also reported an increase in their vaccine sales to US$ 6.4
billion and US$ 6.2 billion respectively and the Covid-19 pandemic has recently
pushed drugmakers to move faster than ever before and has also converted
competitors into partners.
In a rare move, drug behemoths — Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) —joined hands to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus.
The two companies plan to start human trials
in the second half of this year, and if things go right, they will file
for potential approvals by the second half of 2021.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2019 (Free Excel Available)
Our view
Covid-19 has brought the world economy to a grinding halt and shifted the global attention to the pharmaceutical industry’s capability to deliver solutions to address this pandemic.
Our compilation shows that vaccines and drugs
for infectious diseases currently form a tiny fraction of the total sales of
pharmaceutical companies and few drugs against infectious diseases rank high on
the sales list.
This could well explain the limited range of
options currently available to fight Covid-19. With the pandemic currently infecting
over 3 million people spread across more than 200 countries, we can safely
conclude that the scenario in 2020 will change substantially. And so should our
compilation of top drugs for the year.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2019 (Free Excel Available)
Impressions: 54804
https://www.pharmacompass.com/radio-compass-blog/top-drugs-and-pharmaceutical-companies-of-2019-by-revenues
#PharmaFlow by PHARMACOMPASS
29 Apr 2020
As April 2018 breezed past with news of Novartis’ US$ 8.7 billion buyout of AveXis, May set the temperatures soaring with one of the largest pharma acquisitions in recent years.
Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical agreed to buy British drugmaker Shire for US$ 62 billion (£45.3 billion) in the biggest pharma M&A deal of the year.
In a month that witnessed extensive deal making, Eli Lilly announced its commitment to spend over US$ 2.2 billion to acquire immuno-oncology companies — ARMO Biosciences and AurKa Pharma, while Genentech signed a deal worth US$ 969 million with Lodo Therapeutics to discover novel molecules with therapeutic potential against multiple disease-related targets of interest to Genentech.
AstraZeneca was also busy last month as it expanded its collaboration with the UK-based Bicycle Therapeutics by signing a wide-ranging deal to develop novel small molecule medicines for respiratory, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
Will Takeda-Shire’s US$ 62 billion deal go through?
Japanese drug maker Takeda Pharmaceutical Limited
clinched Ireland-based Shire for a hefty price tag
of US$ 62 billion (£46 billion).
Together, they have almost
made
it to the league of the 10 largest drug companies.
Takeda’s first non-Japanese CEO, Christophe Weber, envisions the new entity as a global pharmaceutical giant with its roots in Japan, along with becoming a leader in gastroenterology, neuroscience, oncology and rare diseases.
The transaction has
been approved by the boards of both the companies. It is expected to close in
the first half of 2019.
Click here to view the major deals in May 2018 (FREE Excel
version available)
Upon closing of the
transaction, Takeda shareholders will own approximately 50 percent of the
combined group.
However, Takeda’s board faces stiff
opposition from a group of shareholders who say the buyout will shrink the value of Takeda’s shares.
The small groupof Takeda shareholders comprising the drug maker’s ex-employees has achieved sizable support in its opposition to the company’s deal.
This 130-member group comprising ex-Takeda employees holds one percent of the drug maker’s shares and needs to secure a third of shareholder votes. The group also includes members of the founding Takeda family which holds about 10 percent of Takeda shares, as reported on Nikkan Yakugyo, a Japanese daily.
Click here to view the major deals in May 2018 (FREE Excel
version available)
Reuters reported earlier this week that Takeda “will hold the shareholder meeting later this year or early next year to approve an issue of new stock to help fund the Shire deal, making it a de facto vote on the deal itself.”
This rebel group of shareholders is “working steadily to increase support” for blocking the deal among domestic retail investors and overseas institutional investors who own 25 percent and 35 percent of Takeda shares respectively, Reuters noted.
Last year, this shareholder group had tried preventing the appointment of outgoing Chairman Yasuchika Hasegawa to an advisory position at the company. The proposal stood defeated at the company’s annual general meeting then, since it had gained only 30.5 percent of votes.
Click here to view the major deals in May 2018 (FREE Excel
version available)
After discovering
drugs from soil, Lodo rakes in almost US$ 1 billion from Genentech
Lodo Therapeutics Corporation,
a drug discovery and development company focused on identifying bioactive
natural compounds directly from soil bacteria, announced it had formed a strategic drug discovery
collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group.
The Genentech
collaboration has Lodo receiving an undisclosed upfront payment and becoming
eligible to receive research, development and commercialization milestone
payments of up to US$ 969 million.
In addition, Lodo is
eligible to receive tiered-royalties on sales of certain products resulting
from the collaboration.
Click here to view the major deals in May 2018 (FREE Excel
version available)
Two months before the Genentech deal was announced, Lodo published its discovery of a new class of antibiotics called “malacidins” in the journal Nature Microbiology.
Malacidins,
discovered from soil, attack an essential part of the bacterial cell wall in a
unique way compared to other existing calcium-dependent antibiotics. They annihilate several
bacterial diseases that are resistant to most existing antibiotics, including
the superbug MRSA.
Click here to view the major deals in May 2018 (FREE Excel
version available)
Experts say this
approach offers fresh hope in the antibiotics arms race and may be able to reduce the time and cost of drug
discovery.
Dr Sean Brady's team at New York’s Rockefeller University — the researcher whose vision inspired the founding of Lodo Therapeutics — has devised a gene sequencing technique that can analyze more than 1,000 soil samples which became the basis for the company’s genome mining platform.
Click here to view the major deals in May 2018 (FREE Excel
version available)
Eli Lilly strengthens its oncology portfolio as it goes on a buying spree
Eli Lilly announced it was bolstering its immuno-oncology
portfolio by acquiring ARMO BioSciences for US$ 1.6 billion in cash — just a few months after ARMO’s successful IPO debut on Nasdaq.
This US$ 1.6 billion transaction brings to Lilly’s table ARMO’s lead immuno-oncology asset, pegilodecakin, which is being studied
in multiple tumor types.
Click here to view the major deals in May 2018 (FREE Excel
version available)
While pegilodecakin is a valuable phase 3 asset, the reason for the billion-dollar price tag is its potential use in combination treatments
with Merck’s Keytruda and BMS’ Opdivo.
The successful combination of pegilodecakin with Keytruda and
Opdivo can potentially expand the blockbuster market for the drugs by turning
non-responders into responders.
ARMO has tested pegilodecakin in combination with both Keytruda and Opdivo, but could
combine it with its own anti-PD-1 antibody in the long term.
Click here to view the major deals in May 2018 (FREE Excel
version available)
The biotech bagged US$ 67 million in August to bankroll the pegilodecakin
program, and to move its anti-PD-1 antibody into the clinic.
An Evaluate Pharma report,
published a year ago, examined the explosion in the number of
clinical trials using anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 antibodies combined with other
therapeutic approaches. The report states that the number of combined use
clinical trials had shot up from 215 to 765.
Just four days after the US$ 1.6 billion all-cash
transaction, Lilly announced it is paying US$ 110 million upfront and another US$ 465 million in milestones to buy Montreal-based AurKa Pharma.
Click here to view the major deals in May 2018 (FREE Excel
version available)
At the center of this deal is AK-01, an Aurora kinase A inhibitor that Lilly discovered years ago, which was sold off to TVM Capital Life Science in 2016. Aurora A kinase is a master regulator of mitotic progression, and disrupting it can play a role in preventing tumor progression through various pathways. As such it now fits Lilly’s sweet spot and the cancer team wants it back in their pipeline.
Click here to view the major deals in May 2018 (FREE Excel version
available)
AstraZeneca expands collaboration with UK-based Bicycle Therapeutics
Last month, AstraZeneca and Cambridge-based Bicycle
Therapeutics announced they
have expanded their 2016 collaboration to develop a novel class of small
molecule medicines for treating respiratory, cardiovascular and metabolic
diseases.
The companies said the
alliance could be worth more than US$ 1 billion for Bicycle, if all planned
programs reach the market.
Bicycle Therapeutics is focused on identifying Bicycles, the company’s proprietary bicyclic
peptides that resemble
injectable antibody drugs. These are essentially small molecules that possibly
can be given as pills.
Click here to view the major deals in May 2018 (FREE Excel
version available)
The company states on its website — ‘Bicycles address therapeutic needs unreachable with any other existing modality’. Their small size and exquisite tumor targeting quality delivers rapid tumor penetration and retention while clearance rates and routes can be tuned to minimize exposure of healthy tissue and toxicities.
Our view
While the drug pricing debate continues to rage on in the
United States, Evaluate Pharma recently published its World Drug Forecast
report which predicts that prescription drug sales will grow to US$ 1.2
trillion in 2024 at a compound annual growth rate of 6.4 percent over the next
seven years.
Recently, the Gates Foundation opened its not-for-profit venture and French companies like Servier and Ipsen
announced the launch of their operations in Boston. Being a pharma hub with
small startups, large drug makers, incubator sites and large-biotech focused
research institutes, we expect more deals to take place in Boston over the
coming months, especially post the BIO convention.
PharmaCompass’ compilation of Top Pharma & Biotech Deals — PharmaFlow — is your way of keeping track of all that is happening.
Click here to view the major deals in May 2018 (FREE Excel version available)
Impressions: 2677
https://www.pharmacompass.com/radio-compass-blog/pharma-biotech-deals-investments-and-m-as-in-may-2018
#PharmaFlow by PHARMACOMPASS
14 Jun 2018
The year 2017 was a landmark year for pharmaceutical
industries in the US and Europe, with a sharp increase in the number of new molecular entities (NMEs) being approved in both geographies.
The US Food
and Drug Administration (USFDA) approved 46 NMEs in 2017, the second highest
since 1996 when 53 NMEs were approved. In Europe, the European Medicines Agency
(EMA) approved 35 drugs with a new active substance, up from 27 in 2016.
Sales for most major pharmaceutical
companies continued to grow in 2017. Earnings forecasts for 2018 have been raised due to the recent US tax reform that has
generated investor hopes for accelerated dividend growth and share buyback
plans.
This week, PharmaCompass brings
you a compilation of the top drugs of 2017 by sales revenue.
Click here to Access All the 2017 Data (Excel
version available) for FREE!
Top-sellers: Humira races ahead, despite launch of biosimilars; Enbrel a distant second
There wasn’t any upheaval
at the top of the pharma drug sales charts. AbbVie’s anti-TNF (tumor necrosis factor) giant
Humira (adalimumab), which is approved to treat
psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis, added
almost another US $3 billion to its 2016 sales and posted nearly US $19 billion in revenues.
Last year, AbbVie’s raised expectations for Humira’s earnings to reach US $21 billion in global sales by 2020. The
company believes this drug will continue to be a significant cash contributor
until 2025 and the US $21 billion sales forecast
by 2020 is about US $3 billion higher than its expectation two years ago.
In 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) approved Amgen’s Amjevita (adalimumab-atto) — a biosimilar of Humira. And in 2017, another Humira biosimilar — Boehringer Ingelheim’s Cyltezo
(adalimumab-adbm) — received approval from the FDA and European authorities.
Click here to Access All the 2017 Data (Excel
version available) for FREE!
Enbrel (etanercept),
the longest-used biologic medicine for the treatment of rheumatism around the
world, was the second best-selling drug with US $8.262 billion in 2017 sales.
The sales of the drug were down from US $9.366 billion in
2016 owing to lower selling prices and increased
competition, which in turn hurt demand.
Since it was first approved in the United States in 1998,
Enbrel has been approved in over 100 countries and the drug is promoted by Amgen,
Pfizer
and Takeda
in different geographies.
Novartis’ biosimilar copy of Enbrel, which got approved by the FDA in August
2016 for the treatment of patients with
rheumatoid arthritis (RA), plaque psoriasis, ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and
other diseases is still not on the market because of a patent-protection
challenge from Amgen.
Amgen is arguing in the US federal court
that its drug has patent protection until 2029.
Click here to Access All the 2017 Data (Excel
version available) for FREE!
Fast-growing drugs: Eylea and Revlimid bring
fortunes for Regeneron and Celgene
Regeneron’s
flagship eye treatment, Eylea (aflibercept) which is marketed by Bayer outside the United States, added another US $1 billion in
annual sales last year to record US $8.260 billion in total sales. Eylea net
sales grew 11 percent year-on-year in the US and 19 percent year-over-year
outside the US.
The company believes much of the recent
growth in the US was driven by demographic trends with an aging population as
well as an overall increase in the prevalence of diabetes.
These demographic trends are expected to
continue in the coming years, providing an opportunity for continued growth.
Eylea sales alone contribute 63 percent to Regeneron’s total sales.
Click here to Access All the 2017 Data (Excel
version available) for FREE!
Celgene’s
Revlimid
(lenalidomide)
— a thalidomide derivative introduced in 2004 as an immunomodulatory agent for the treatment of various cancers such as multiple myeloma — brought in an additional US $1.2 billion in 2017 sales and had total revenues of US $8.187 billion.
Revlimid continues to contribute more than 60 percent to the company’s total sales of US $13 billion.
Celgene received a setback this month as the
USFDA refused to consider Celgene’s
application for ozanimod, an experimental
treatment for relapsing multiple sclerosis. The treatment was being seen as a
key to the company’s fortunes as Celgene had
said ozanimod is worth US $4 billion to
US $6
billion a year in peak sales.
Click here to Access All the 2017 Data (Excel
version available) for FREE!
Gilead’s Hepatitis C franchise enters free fall
Gilead Sciences’ blockbuster hepatitis C drugs franchise that includes Sovaldi and Harvoni continue to feel the
competitive heat as they registered US $9.137
billion in 2017 sales, down from US $14.834
billion the previous year.
While reporting 2017 results, Gilead provided guidance for
2018 and said its sales of Hepatitis C drugs could fall
further to US $3.5 billion - US $4 billion. At their peak in 2015, Gilead’s Sovaldi and Harvoni had together generated
US $19.1 billion in sales.
One of the major reasons for this drop is AbbVie’s launch of its new treatment Mavyret
at a deep price discount to the competition. AbbVie
also claims to have the shortest treatment course at eight weeks, compared with
12 weeks or longer for other treatments.
AbbVie reported US $1.274 billion in Hepatitis C drug sales
in 2017, down from US $1.522 billion in 2016.
Click here to Access All the 2017 Data (Excel
version available) for FREE!
Novartis’ Gleevec, Merck’s cardiovascular drugs, GSK’s Advair face generic heat
Novartis’ Gleevec (imatinib), which had at one point become the best-selling drug for Novartis and had brought in US $3.323 billion for the company in 2016, started facing generic competition last year and the anti-cancer drug lost US $1.380 billion in sales to bring in ‘only’ US $1.943 billion last year.
The US patents of Merck’s cardiovascular drugs — Zetia (Ezetimibe)
and Vytorin (Ezetimibe
and Simvastatin) — expired in April 2017. In May 2010, Merck and Glenmark
Pharmaceuticals entered into an agreement that allowed Glenmark to launch
a generic version of Zetia in late 2016. The drugs
that had combined sales of US $3.701
billion in 2016 felt the generic heat in 2017 and the sales were US
$1.606 billion lower at US $2.095
billion.
Click here to Access All the 2017 Data (Excel
version available) for FREE!
GSK’s Advair, which was expected
to encounter generic competition in 2017, continued to breathe easy as the FDA
found deficiencies in the applications of Hikma, Mylan and Sandoz.
All three failed to get the FDA nod for their generic versions of Advair, a drug used in the management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that generated sales worth US $4.431 billion (£3.130 billion) in 2017.
Top 15 drugs by sales
Here is PharmaCompass’ compilation
of the best-selling drugs of 2017. This is based on information extracted from
annual reports and US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings of major
pharmaceutical companies.
If you would like your own copy of all the information we’ve collected, email us at support@pharmacompass.com and we’ll send you an Excel version.
Click here to access all the 2017 data (Excel
version available) for FREE!
S. No.
Company / Companies
Product Name
Active Ingredient
Main Therapeutic Indication
2017 Revenue in Millions (USD)
1
AbbVie Inc., Eisai
Humira®
Adalimumab
Immunology (Organ Transplant, Arthritis etc.)
18,946
2
Amgen, Pfizer Inc., Takeda
Enbrel®
Etanercept
Immunology (Organ Transplant, Arthritis etc.)
8,262
3
Regeneron, Bayer
Eylea
Aflibercept
Ophthalmology
8,260
4
Celgene
Revlimid
Lenalidomide
Oncology
8,187
5
Roche
MabThera®/Rituxan®
Rituximab
Oncology
7,831
6
Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Mitsubishi Tanabe
Remicade®
Infliximab
Autoimmune Disorders
7,784
7
Roche
Herceptin®
Trastuzumab
Oncology
7,435
8
Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer Inc.
Eliquis®
Apixaban
Cardiovascular Diseases
7,395
9
Roche
Avastin®
Bevacizumab
Oncology
7,089
10
Bayer, Johnson & Johnson
XareltoTM
Rivaroxaban
Cardiovascular Diseases
6,590
11
Bristol Myers Squibb, Ono Pharmaceutical
Opdivo
Nivolumab
Oncology
5,815
12
Sanofi
Lantus
Insulin Glargine
Diabetes
5,731
13
Pfizer Inc.
Prevnar 13/Prevenar 13
Pneumococcal 7-Valent Conjugate
Anti-bacterial
5,601
14
Pfizer Inc., Eisai
Lyrica
Pregabalin
Neurological/Mental Disorders
5,318
15
Amgen, Kyowa Hakko Kirin
Neulasta®
Pegfilgrastim
Blood Disorders
4,553
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Click here to Access All
the 2017 Data (Excel version available) for FREE!
Impressions: 58491
https://www.pharmacompass.com/radio-compass-blog/top-drugs-by-sales-in-2017-who-sold-the-blockbuster-drugs
#PharmaFlow by PHARMACOMPASS
29 Mar 2018
The year began with a
series of big ticket acquisitions, especially the ones by Sanofi and Celgene. And the trend continued in February.
In fact, the first
two months of 2018 have seen pharma and biotech firms receive more money than what all biotech companies raised in entire 2013.
Here’s a look at some of the deals announced in February 2018. We hope this roundup gives you an insight into the breakthrough technologies and business
trends of tomorrow.
Bristol-Myers Squibb’s US$ 3.6 billion oncology deal with Nektar
Leading the deal
makers in February was Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) which continued to bet big on the
potential of immune-oncology in cancer research by striking a US$ 3.6 billion deal with Nektar Therapeutics.
The multi-billion
dollar partnership deal will give BMS
35 percent of global profits in Nektar’s lead immuno-oncology program — NKTR-214. The collaboration will evaluate the full-potential of NKTR-214 and BMS’ flagship product Opdivo (nivolumab) across numerous tumors. The
collaboration will also establish a broad joint clinical development plan
combining NKTR-214 with Opdivo and
Opdivo with Yervoy (ipilimumab) in more than 20
indications across nine tumors.
Nektar’s NKTR-214 has a unique target in the Interleukin-2 (IL-2) pathway. IL-2 is a protein
that regulates the activities of white blood cells (leukocytes, often
lymphocytes) that are responsible for immunity.
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The
drug is designed to bind to the CD122 receptor, one of the three subunits of the IL-2 receptor, which is
expressed by T-cells as an immune response to stimulate the patient's own immune system to fight cancer.
NKTR-214 is designed to grow specific cancer-killing T cells and NK cell
populations in the body that fight cancer.
NKTR-214
stimulates these cancer-killing immune cells in the body by targeting CD122
specific receptors found on the surface of these immune cells, known as CD8+
effector T cells and NK cells.
Gilead announces
US$ 3 billion oncology deal with Sangamo Therapeutics
The second major deal in the oncology space last month was Gilead’s US$ 3 billion deal with Sangamo
Therapeutics. Doubling down on its US$ 11.9 billion acquisition of Kite in
August 2017, Gilead
struck the deal with
Sangamo to access its zinc finger nuclease
(ZFN) technology.
Gilead’s Kite plans to launch next-generation off-the-shelf cell therapies using ZFN’s gene recognition and gene-editing advantages to further strengthen its position in the growing cell therapy space.
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Following
the discovery of gene-editing technologies like CRISPR/Cas9, pharma giants have been exploring all other gene-editing tools including TALENs and ZFN to target underlying genes of cancers and provide potential treatments that eradicate cancer cells without killing adjacent cells.
Under the terms of the deal, Sangamo will receive US$ 150 million
upfront and is eligible for up to US$ 3.01 billion in future payments tied to
regulatory and other milestones. In return, Sangamo is giving Kite an exclusive license to use
its technology in creating allogeneic and autologous anti-cancer cell therapy
programs.
The license will expand Kite’s toolkit that it can apply to R&D projects and also provide Kite with a competitive advantage as it keeps the ZFN platform out of the hands of other CAR-T therapies like those at Novartis and Juno, which were
recently acquired by Celgene.
Gilead’s US$ 11.9 billion acquisition of Kite Pharma last year was a way to get access to an emerging class of cancer immunotherapies called CAR-T and to offset slowing sales of its hepatitis C medicines.
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Following the Kite
acquisition, four months later, Gilead announced its US$ 567 million acquisition of Cell
Design, a
company developing custom cell engineering technology which is supposed to
augment existing research and development programs it acquired through Kite.
All these major
acquisitions by Gilead in the CAR-T space demonstrate its focus on CAR-T drugs, a new class of cancer therapies that involve genetically modifying a patient’s own immune cells to better recognize and attack cancer.
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Roche picks up
Google-backed Flatiron for US$ 1.9 billion
Pharmaceutical giant Roche announced it was buying Flatiron Health — a firm developing technology for life science, academics and hospitals — for US$ 1.9 billion. The firm was founded by two ex-Google employees — Nat
Turner and Zach Weinberg — and is a cancer-focused start-up.
Roche was already an investor in this New York-based firm and
had a 12 percent stake in the company before
the buyout. Besides Roche, Flatiron’s biggest investors include Alphabet’s GV (formerly Google Ventures).
If we include Roche’s existing 12 percent stake, the total value of Flatiron Health comes to around US$ 2.1 billion. Flatiron employs 25 people with medical degrees and 104 engineers and technology
specialists.
Flatiron
has an electronic health record system that collects data from doctors who are
treating patients with cancer. This data later becomes useful to researchers
and life sciences companies in developing better treatments for cancer.
Flatiron has raised more than US$ 300 million from investors such as Roche and Alphabet.
“As a leading technology company in oncology, Flatiron Health is best positioned to provide the technology and data analytics infrastructure needed not only for Roche, but for oncology research and development efforts across the entire industry,” Roche CEO Daniel O’Day said in a statement.
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The
transaction is expected to close in the first half of this year and will
bolster Roche's oncology portfolio.
Big pharma
continues its deal making activity
While the focus of
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), Gilead and Roche was on cancer, big pharma
companies like AbbVie, Mylan, J&J, AstraZeneca were making deals in February outside
the oncology space.
AbbVie’s deal with Voyager Therapeutics: AbbVie and Voyager Therapeutics launched a US$ 1.2 billion partnership to develop and commercialize gene therapies directed against tau
for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.
In healthy individuals, tau is an abundant protein in the brain that promotes
cellular stability and function. In the diseased brain, altered tau
accumulates, resulting in impaired brain function and neuronal cell loss.
Theravance’s co-development deal with J&J:
Theravance Biopharma
announced it had entered into a global co-development and commercialization agreement with Janssen
Biotech, Inc.,
one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, for inflammatory intestinal diseases, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
Theravance will receive an upfront payment of US$ 100 million and will be
eligible to receive up to an additional US$ 900 million in potential payments, if Janssen chooses to remain in the collaboration following the completion of certain Phase 2 activities of Theravance’s lead candidate — TD-1473.
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Astra buys
antisense drug from Ionis Pharma:
AstraZeneca paid Ionis Pharmaceuticals US$ 30 million in cash for an antisense drug which is designed
to treat a genetically
associated form of kidney disease. Ionis stands to receive up to US$ 300 million in tiered royalties as well as
development and regulatory milestones, the company said.
Mylan-Revance join
hands for Botox biosimilar:
Mylan announced it would pay Revance Therapeutics US$ 25 million
upfront, followed by contingent milestone payments upon achievement of
additional clinical, regulatory and sales targets, plus sales royalties for the
development and commercialization of a proposed biosimilar to
Botox (onabotulinumtoxinA).
Revance Therapeutics
is a biotechnology company developing neuromodulators for treating aesthetic
and underserved therapeutic conditions, including muscle movement disorders and
pain.
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The company’s lead drug candidate — DaxibotulinumtoxinA for injection (RT002) — is currently in development for the treatment of glabellar lines, cervical dystonia and plantar fasciitis, with the potential to becoming the first long-acting neuromodulator.
Strategically, this partnership with Mylan allows Revance to remain
focused on the possible 2020 US launch of their premium, long-acting RT002
neuromodulator, while also benefitting financially from developing a
short-acting biosimilar to Botox.
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Our view
Immuno-oncology, gene-editing and big data continue to hog the limelight in the M&A space. These are the technologies where major investments are being made. And with all major pharmaceutical companies looking at these technologies, one can expect a lot more deals to fructify in the months to come.
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https://www.pharmacompass.com/radio-compass-blog/pharma-deals-investments-and-m-as-in-february-2018
#PharmaFlow by PHARMACOMPASS
08 Mar 2018
