Lucentis sales fell 34%

Lucentis cuts drug price by 30% with biosimilar release

a sharp drop in sales

Humira, Avastin, Herceptin, Mabthera, etc. also cut their drug prices after launching similar products

Humira, Avastin, Herceptin, and Mabthera also saw drug prices cut after entering the market for similar drugs.

 

Domestic sales of Lucentis, an eye disease treatment, fell by more than 30%.

 

As Chong Kun Dang and Samsung Bioepis launched biosimilars, drug prices went down and sales took a direct hit.

 

New drugs from multinational pharmaceutical companies, such as Remicade, Enbrel, Herceptin, Mabthera, Humira, and Avastin, are experiencing repeated sales declines due to drug price cuts after the introduction of domestically developed biosimilars.

 

It is evaluated that a virtuous cycle structure in which domestic companies' R&D achievements generate hundreds of billions of won in health insurance financial savings is being established.

 

According to IQVIA, a drug research agency on the 26th, sales of Lucentis in the first quarter were 5 billion won, down 34.2% from the same period last year.

 

It decreased by 20.1% in one quarter from 6.2 billion won in the fourth quarter of last year.

 

Lucentis, sold by Roche and Novartis, is a drug used to treat eye diseases such as macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema.

 

This drug is used for ▲ the treatment of neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration, ▲ treatment of visual impairment due to diabetic macular edema, ▲ treatment of proliferative diabetic retinopathy, ▲ treatment of visual impairment due to retinal vein occlusive macular edema, ▲ It is used for treatment of visual impairment due to the formation of choroidal neovascularization.

 

A direct factor behind the decline in Lucentis' sales was drug price cuts following the entry into biosimilars.

 

Samsung Bioepis and Chong Kun Dang received permission for Lucentis' biosimilar products.

 

Samsung Bioepis obtained approval for Lucentis biosimilar Ameliebou in May last year, and Chong Kun Dang got approval for Lusenbier in October last year.

 

Ameliebou and Lusenbies have been listed on the health insurance benefit list since January.

 

Lucentis has lowered its insurance cap by 30% since February.

 

The insurance price of Lucentis 10mg (3mg/0.3mL) went down from 820,636 won to 574,445 won, and Lucentis 10mg (2.3mg/0.23mL) went down from 828,166 won to 579,716 won.

 

The drug price of Lucentis PFS (826,231 won → 578,362 won) was also cut by 30%.

 

In principle, when a biosimilar appears in the domestic drug price system, the upper price standard for original drugs is lowered by 30% compared to before the patent expiration.

 

'Items developed by a company that signed a joint contract with an innovative pharmaceutical company, a company equivalent to it, a domestic pharmaceutical company, or a foreign company, or items for which Korea was the first licensed country or items produced in Korea' Guaranteed up to 80% of the original product.

 

With the advent of a biosimilar developed by a domestic company, Lucentis saw a 30 percent drop in drug prices, and a drop in sales equal to the rate of drug price cut became a reality at once.

 

Recently, sales of global blockbuster products Humira and Avastin also plummeted due to drug price cuts following the entry of biosimilars.

 

Autoimmune disease treatment Humira saw its sales drop 24.7% in the first quarter from 27.5 billion won in the first quarter of 2021 to 20.7 billion won in the second quarter.

 

Humira is a TNF-alpha inhibitor that treats autoimmune diseases by suppressing the expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α).

 

As of June 7, 2021, Humira's insurance cap has been reduced by 30%.

 

The price of Humira Pen 40mg/0.4mL, Humira PFS 40mg/0.4mL, and Humira 40mg vial fell 30% from 411,558 won to 288,091 won, and Humira PFS 20mg/0.2mL from 224,002 won to 156,801 won.

 

When Samsung Bioepis registered Humira biosimilar Adalloce for reimbursement in May 2021, Humira's upper limit fell a month later.

 

Humira posted sales of 104 billion won in 2020, but decreased by 12.3% to 91.2 billion won in 2021.

 

Last year, it was 85.8 billion won, down 17.5% from two years ago.

 

In just two years after the introduction of biosimilars, sales decreased by about 30 billion won.

 

Roche’s anti-cancer drug Avastin recorded sales of 19.4 billion won in the first quarter, down 32.4 percent in two years from 28.7 billion won in the first quarter of 2021.

 

Avastin is an anticancer drug used for metastatic colorectal cancer, metastatic breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma, glioblastoma, epithelial ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer, primary peritoneal cancer, and cervical cancer.

 

Avastin showed a stable growth flow, such as 28.7 billion won, 30.2 billion won, and 30.8 billion won, from the first quarter of 2021 to the third quarter, but in the fourth quarter, it decreased by 28.6% from the previous quarter to 22 billion won.

 

The drop in sales was inevitable due to drug price cuts following the introduction of biosimilars.

 

Samsung Bioepis received permission for Avastin's first biosimilar, Onbevezy, in March 2021, and was listed on the health insurance list in September of the same year.

 

With the listing of Onbevezy, the upper limit of Avastin 0.1g/4mL in October 2021 was reduced by 30% from 33,387 won to 231,271 won.

 

Avastin 0.4g/16mL fell 30% from 1,077,531 won to 752,746 won.