Antidiabetic Tenelia market rises 67% with entry of generics

Prescription of Tenelia generics in Q1 record KRW 8.4 billion... market share rises 41% in 5 months

Original’s sales fall slightly from KRW 12.3 billion to KRW 12 billion...Januvia and other top-grossing products suffer a blow

The teneligliptin antidiabetic market has expanded 1.7 times in a single year.

 

This is analyzed to be influenced by the large amount of generics that entered the market in October last year.

 

Only 5 months after its launch, prescriptions of Tenelia generics that were launched exceeded KRW 10 billion, and their market share grew to 41%.

 

◆ Tenelia generics Market share increased to 41%…most products sell less than KRW 300 million According to the market research institution UBIST, outpatient prescriptions of the teneligliptin antidiabetic drugs market rose to reach KRW 20.5 billion in Q1.

 

This is a 67% market increase from KRW 12.3 billion in Q1 2022.

 

The addition of teneligliptin generics led to the expansion of the overall market size.

 

Thirty-seven domestic companies have released a large number of generics after the expiration of Tenelia's substance patent on October 25 last year.

 

For the 2 months since December last year, Tenelia generics raised KRW 3.4 billion in prescriptions.

 

Prescriptions then increased to KRW 8.4 billion in Q1 this year.

 

In just 5 months since their release, cumulative prescriptions rose to exceed KRW 10 billion.

 

The share of teneligliptin in the antidiabetic drug market has risen from 21% in Q4 last year to 41% in Q1 this year.

 

However, no specific generics among the 37 companies have shown prominence.

 

In Q1 last year, Daewon Pharmaceutical's Tenetin·Tenetin M and Mothers Pharm’s Teneglip Tab·Teneglip M each recorded KRW 900 million, Jeil Pharm's Tenepil and Tenepil Plus recorded KRW 800 million, and all others were less than KRW 300 million.

 

◆Due to no drug price cuts, sales of original fell only 2% in one-year The original product, Handok’s Tenelia and Tenelia M recorded KRW 12 billion in prescriptions in Q1.

 

This is a slight decrease from the KRW 12.3 billion in Q1 last year.

 

The release of generics has not greatly impacted the sales of the original.

 

In general, the price of original drugs falls 30% with the release of their generics.

 

The next year, the price falls further to 53.55% of the existing price.

 

However, the price of Handok’s Tenelia and Tenelia M have stayed the same as before.

 

This is because the Tenelia generics have used a different salt formation from the original.

 

The original Tenelia uses hydrobromide, and the generics use hydrochloride or ditosylate.

 

The National Health Insurance Service only discounts the price of drugs when a drug with the 'same formulation' as the existing product applies for reimbursement.

 

The same formulation there means a case in which not only the ingredients but also the route of administration, dosage, method of intake, formulation, efficacy, and effect are identical.

 

In other words, Tenelia generics are not interpreted as the same drug because the salt was different from the original product, and the drug price of the original product was not lowered as a result.

 

◆Januvia price falls 9%·Trajenta’s price falls 3%…negatively affected other DPP-4 antidiabetics On the other hand, other DPP-4 inhibitor-type antidiabetics, such as Januvia (sitagliptin) and Trajenta (linagliptin) were more affected by the release of Tenelia generics.

 

In fact, the total prescription amount of MSD’s Januvia, Janumet, and Janumet XR in Q1 was KRW 37.9 billion, a 9% decrease from KRW 41.7 billion in Q1 2022.

 

In the case of the Januvia series, sales have also partially fallen due to the impurity issue.

 

MSD had voluntarily recalled 2 lot numbers of Januvia 50mg from March 13 because excess nitrosamine impurities, 'Nitroso-STG-19 (NTTP),' was detected in some Januvia 50mg products.

 

However, MSD announced that the products to be recovered are only 0.35% of the total quantity.

 

Boehringer Ingelheim’s Trajenta and Trajenta Duo had fell 3% from KRW 32.7 billion to KRW 31.7 billion in one year.

 

Sales of Celltrion Pharm’s Nesina series fell 8% from KRW 8.7 billion to KRW 8 billion.

 

However, LG Chem’s Zemiglo series increased by 1.1% from KRW 34.6 billion to KRW 35 billion.

 

The sales of Novartis’s Galvus series, whose generics were released before Tenelia, had fallen 25% from KRW 9.9 billion to KRW 7.4 billion.

 

In the same period, the total prescription amount of Galvus generics had increased by 5 times from KRW 1.2 billion to KRW 5.7 billion.

 

The share of its generics in the market rose to 44% in Q1.