Sales of Esomezol ·Noltec↑ Nexium↓ in the PPI market

Nexium’s prescription performance falls for 3 consecutive years… Sales for Lanston and Pariet also fall

Salse of Esomezol ·Noltec rise 3% in 1 year…growth rate slows down compared to the previous year

Sales of major proton pump inhibitor (PPI) class of antiulcer drugs showed mixed performance last year.

 

‘Nexium (esomeprazole)’ saw a 4% year-on-year decline in prescriptions, while ‘Lanston LFDT (lansoprazole)’ and ‘Pariet (rabeprazole)’ also saw a decline in prescriptions.

 

Hanmi Pharmaceutical's ‘Esomezol (esomeprazole)’ and Ilyang Pharmaceutical's ‘Noltec (ilaprazole)’ saw an increase in prescriptions last year.

 

However, the increase has slowed down recently.

 

This may be due to the rapid growth of its competitors such as P-CABs (potassium-competitive acid blockers).

 

Presciptions of Esomezol·Esomezol Plus rise 3% in 1 yr…sales growth slows down

Hanmi Pharmaceutical

According to market research institution UBIST, Hanmi Pharmaceutical's ‘Esomezol‘ recorded the highest prescription sales in the domestic PPI anti-ulcer drug market last year.

 

Esomezol prescriptions totaled KRW 61.6 billion last year, up 1% YoY.

 

Hanmi Pharmaceutical launched Esomezol in 2008.

 

Since then, its prescriptions have increased steadily.

 

From 2018 to 2021, prescription sales increased by more than 20% every year.

 

In 2021, it reached the KRW 50 billion mark for the first time and became the market leader.

 

However, since 2022, its sales growth has slowed down.

 

In 2022, sales increased by only 2% YoY, and in 2023, the growth rate decreased further to 1%.

 

Hanmi Pharmaceutical launched Esomezol Plus in 2022 to make up for the slowdown in sales of Esomezol.

 

Esomezol Plus is an immediate-release product that contains esomeprazole and magnesium hydroxide.

 

It is characterized by a faster onset of action than the existing Esomezol.

 

Esomezol Plus generated prescription sales of KRW 1.5 billion in 2022 and KRW 2.6 billion last year.

 

Prescription sales of Esomezol and Esomezol Plus together increased by 3% from KRW 62.4 billion in 2022 to KRW 64.2 billion last year.

 

The situation is not so different for Ilyang Pharmaceutical's Noltec.

 

Noltec’s prescriptions rose 3% YoY to KRW 42.3 billion last year.

 

From 2018 to 2020, Noltec’s prescription sales increased by more than 10% every year.

 

In 2021, the year-on-year prescription growth rate decreased to 8% and further decreased to 3% in 2022 and 2023.

 

Nexium KRW 33.5 billion→KRW 32.3 billion…prescriptions decreased for 3 consecutive years Other major PPIs performed poorly in the outpatient prescription market in general.

 

AstraZeneca's Nexium posted prescription sales of KRW 32.3 billion last year.

 

This is down 4% from the KRW 33.5 billion it had made in 2022.

 

It was the 3 consecutive year the company saw a decline in prescriptions since 2021.

 

Nexium’s sales grew steadily until 2020 and had long been a leader among PPI class anti-ulcer drugs, but prescriptions declined for the first time in 2021.

 

With the decline, the company had to hand over its market lead to Hanmi Pharmaceuticals' Esomezol.

 

In 2022, the decline was even greater.

 

Prescription sales dropped from KRW 42 billion in 2021 to KRW 33.5 billion, dropping 20% in one year.

 

Daewoong Pharmaceutical has concluded its copromotion agreement for Nexium (left) and is selling Nexium’s generic version, Nexierd (right) from 2022

The industry pointed to the change in domestic sales rights as one of the reasons for the decline in Nexium's prescription performance.

 

Previously, Nexium was co-promoted and co-sold by Daewoong Pharmaceutical, but AstraZeneca and Daewoong chose to part ways at the end of 2021.

 

Daewoong decided to focus its sales efforts on the launch of Nexium's potential competitor, Fexuclu (fexuprazan).

 

So, Ildong Pharmaceutical took over the place of Daewoong Pharmaceutical and copromoted sales of Nexium ever since.

 

Ildong aimed to synergize Nexium’s sales with another PPI antiulcer drug, Rabiet (rabeprazole), but both Nexium and Rabiet experienced a sales decline as a result.

 

Daewoong decided to part ways with Nexium and launch a generic version of Nexium.

 

Since 2022, the company started selling its Nexium generic Nexierd in 2022.

 

At the same time, it sold Nexiquin, another generic version of Nexium, through its subsidiary Daewoong Bio.

 

Nexierd and Nexiquin landed in the market in 2022, recording prescription sales of KRW 7.5 billion in the first year.

 

However, sales dropped 8% to KRW 6.9 billion last year.

 

Lanston·Pariet·Rabiet show slowdown in sales…influenced by rise in competition, including P-CAB etc. Takeda's Lanston LFDT (lansoprazole) has also seen a decline in its prescriptions for 3 consecutive years since 2021.

 

Last year, prescription sales of Lanston LFDT were KRW 21.7 billion, down 7% YoY.

 

The drug had made a personal new record in 2020 with KRW 32.8 billion in prescriptions, but it fell to KRW 30.8 billion the following year, and further declined to KRW 23.4 billion in 2022.

 

Sales of Takeda's other PPI anti-ulcer drug, Dexilant DR (dexlansoprazole), have stagnated recently.

 

Presciptions of Dexilant had increased from KRW 17.1 billion in 2020, to KRW 18.8 billion in 2021, then to KRW 20.9 billion in 2022.

 

However, last year, it sold KRW 20.9 billion, the same as in the previous year.

 

Eisai’s Pariet (rabeprazole) generated KRW 19.6 billion last year, down 4% YoY.

 

Pariet’s prescription sales steadily expanded from 2018 to 2022 but saw a decline for the first time last year.

 

Ildong Pharmaceutical's ‘Laviet’ decreased by 2% from KRW 19.4 billion in 2022 to KRW 19.1 billion last year.

 

Sales of Daewon Pharmaceutical's Eswoamp (esomeprazole) fell 6% to KRW 18.8 billion from KRW 20 billion during the same period, and Takeda's Pantoloc (pantoprazole) fell 5% to KRW 12.1 billion from KRW 12.7 billion.

 

The industry pointed to the rise of its competitors as one of the reasons for the sluggish sales of the major PPI class anti-ulcer drugs.

 

P-CAB class drugs are one representative.

 

The rapid rise in prescription sales of HK Inno.N’s ‘K-CAB (tegoprazan)’ and Daewoong Pharmaceutical's ‘Fexuclue (fexuprazan),’ had relatively slowed down sales of PPI drugs that have the same indication.

 

K-CAB recorded prescription sales of KRW 158.2 billion last year.

 

Since its launch in 2019, it has made strong growth, recording a 20% YoY increase in sales.

 

Fexuclue recorded prescription sales of KRW 53.5 billion last year.

 

After launching in July 2022 and generating sales of KRW 12.9 billion by the end of the year, its sales rose even more steeply last year.

 

The rise of PPI+antacid combination drugs is also analyzed to have contributed to the decline of PPI single-agent drugs.

 

The PPI+antacid market grew rapidly, recording KRW 19.8 billion in 2020, to KRW 27.6 billion in 2021, to KRW 44.2 billion in 2022, and then to KRW 53.8 billion last year.