Last year’s sales of Yuhan Leclaza were 16.1 billion won

New K-cancer drug record

Leclaza, the first domestically developed anti-cancer drug to break through 10 billion won in annual sales

Cumulative sales of 20 billion won in 1 year and 6 months after release.

 

High growth prospects when promoted to first-line treatment.

 

Yuhan Corporation's anti-cancer drug Leclaza is successfully settling in the domestic market.

 

In the second year of its release, it posted sales of 16.1 billion won, breaking the record for annual sales of a new anti-cancer drug developed in Korea.

 

According to IQVIA, a drug research agency on the 24th, Leclaza recorded sales of 16.1 billion won last year.

 

It increased by 4 times from 4.1 billion last year.

 

Leclaza is a non-small cell lung cancer treatment approved as the 31st new drug developed in Korea in January 2021.

 

Patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer who developed T790M resistance after administration of first- and second-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are eligible for the treatment.

 

It acts as a mechanism to inhibit the proliferation and growth of lung cancer cells by interfering with the signal transduction involved in the growth of lung cancer cells.

 

Leclaza entered the prescription market in earnest in July 2021 with its listing on the health insurance benefit list.

 

Sales of 1.5 billion won and KRW 2.6 billion occurred in the third and fourth quarters of 2021, respectively.

 

In the past year, Leclaza's sales have grown even more.

 

It sold 3.2 billion won and 3.7 billion won in the first and second quarters of last year, respectively, and expanded to 4.6 billion won and 4.5 billion won in the third and fourth quarters.

 

Leclaza recorded cumulative sales of 20.2 billion won for a year and a half after its release.

 

Leclaza has already broken the sales record for new anti-cancer drugs developed in Korea.

 

Domestically developed anti-cancer drugs approved prior to Leclaza include Ilyang Pharm's Supect, Dongwha Pharm's Millican, Chong Kun Dang Camtobel, Samsung Pharm's Riavacs, and Hanmi Pharm's Olita.

 

None of these products exceeded 10 billion won in annual sales.

 

Supect recorded sales of 7.6 billion won last year.

 

Supect, which was approved as the 18th domestically developed new drug in January 2012, is a drug used to treat chronic myelogenous leukemia.

 

Supect drew attention as Asia's first treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia, but annual sales have never exceeded 10 billion won since its launch.

 

Camtobel's sales last year were only 3.5 billion won.

 

Camtobel is a drug approved as the 8th domestic new drug in 2003 and is used for ovarian cancer and small cell lung cancer.

 

Leclaza's report card at the beginning of its release is evaluated as a good start.

 

Since anticancer drugs, which are usually used in large medical institutions, can be prescribed after passing the drug committee, it takes a considerable amount of time for sales to occur at the initial stage of release.

 

Due to the nature of direct competition with outstanding new drug products from multinational pharmaceutical companies, it is not easy for new anti-cancer drugs developed in Korea to achieve commercial results.

 

Leclaza passed the Pharmaceutical Affairs Committee of major domestic medical institutions one after another.

 

If Leclaza is approved as a first-line treatment, the pace of market expansion is expected to accelerate.

 

Recently, clinical trials have confirmed the possibility of Leclaza as a first-line treatment.

 

Leclaza demonstrated superior safety and efficacy compared to existing treatments in phase 3 clinical trial (LASER301) conducted on 393 patients with active EGFR mutation-positive locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer who had not previously received treatment.

 

The clinical results were recently unveiled at the Asian Congress of the European Society for Oncology held in Singapore.

 

Yuhan plans to apply for first-line treatment approval based on the LASER301 clinical trial results.

 

Yuhan Corporation has secured $150 million in license fees for Leclaza.

 

In November 2018, Leclaza was technology exported to Janssen Biotech, and at this time, it received a non-returnable down payment of $50 million.

 

Yuhan received a milestone payment of $35 million from Janssen in April 2020.

 

At the time, Janssen paid Yuhan Corporation an additional milestone when it started clinical trials for the combination therapy of Amivantamab and Leclaza.

 

In November 2020, Janssen paid Yuhan an additional milestone of $65 million as it began recruiting subjects for this clinical trial.