Prescription of Celltrion’s Takeda drugs fall for 2 yrs

drugs Celltrion Pharm acquired from Takeda Pharmaceutical

Prescription of DPP-4i Nesina series drop 16% in 2 years

Sales of Actos, Edarbi also sluggish... total prescription amount fall from KRW 69.5 billion to KRW 65.4 billion

Prescription performance of the 3 major chronic disease treatments that Celltrion Pharm acquired from Takeda Pharmaceutical had fallen for 2 consecutive years since their acquisition.

 

The ‘Nesina’ series, which account for the most proportion of sales among the acquired products, recorded KRW 28.2 billion in sales last year, recording a downward trend for 3 consecutive years since 2020.

 

Sales of the other diabetes treatment ‘Actos’ series and the hypertension treatment ‘Edarbi’ series have also shown sluggish sales in terms of prescription performance over the past 2 years.

 

According to the market research institution UBIST on the 8th, the total prescription amount of the 3 major chronic disease treatments that Celltrion acquired from Takeda Pharmaceutical was KRW 65.4 billion last year.

 

This is a 5% decrease from the KRW 68.9 billion recorded by the same drugs in 2021.

 

In June 2020, Celltrion signed an agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical to acquire the rights of 18 prescription drugs and OTCs sold by Takeda’s Primary Care Business Unit in the Asia Pacific region for a total of USD 278.3 million (KRW 307.4 billion).

 

Under the deal, the company acquired the diabetes treatment Nesina Actos, the hypertension treatment Edarbi, and OTCs Whituben, Albothyl, etc.

 

The acquisition process was completed in December of the same year, and work to switch the domestic marketing authorization license had been ongoing until January last year.

 

The products are now being sold by Celltrion in Korea.

 

The decrease in sales was most significant in the sales of the Nesina series, the DPP-4 inhibitor class diabetes treatments.

 

Total sales of Nesina, Nesina Met, and Nesina Act recorded KRW 28.2 billion last year.

 

Ever since their sales peaked at KRW 35.9 billion in 2019, sales steadily declined to KRW 33.4 billion in 2020, then KRW 31.4 billion in 2021.

 

In particular, sales fell below KRW 30 billion for the first time in 6 years since 2016 last year.

 

In the case of the Nesina series, their prescriptions have been on a decline even before the drug was acquired by Celltrion due to fierce competition in the DPP-4 inhibitor class diabetes treatment market.

 

In addition, the release of generic versions of its competitor Galvus and Tenelia further decreased the influence of Nesina in the market.

 

The TZD class antidiabetic Actos series and the ARB class hypertension treatment Edarbi series had also shown a slowdown in sales recently.

 

The total prescription amount of Actos, Actos Med, and ActosRyl was KRW 25.9 billion, which was a 3% increase from KRW 25.2 billion in 2020.

 

However, the amount had decreased by 2% from KRW 26.6.

 

billion in 2021.

 

Total prescriptions of Edarbi and Edarbi klo had increased by 3% in the past 2 years from KRW 10.8 billion in 2020 to KRW 11.2 billion last year.

 

The combined prescription amount of the three product groups rose steadily from KRW 62.9 billion in 2018 to KRW 69.5 billion in 2020.

 

However, sales then fell to KRW 68.9 billion in 2021, then to KRW 65.4 billion last year.

 

After Celltrion acquired the products, sales performance of the Edarbi and Actos series had improved slightly, but as the performance of the Nesina series, which accounted for the largest portion of sales among the acquired products decreased significantly, this is analyzed to have led to the decrease in the total prescription amount.

 

In the case of the OTCs Whituben and Albothyl, their sales data has not been compiled yet.

 

However, in the case of Whituben, sales are said to have increased twofold compared to the previous year due to the increase in demand for cold medicines following the rapid increase in confirmed cases of COVID-19 last year.

 

Sales of the Whituben series in 2021 had been KRW 2.5 billion.