Mavyret occupies 85% of HCV market...sales fall 36% in 3 yrs

Mavyret expands its market share in the oral HCV drug market to 85% last year

Prescription sales amount falls 36% from KRW 46.5 billion in 2019 to KRW 29 billion last year

Reduction in sales attributed to the total reduction in market size... Introduction of Gilead’s Epclusa, Vosevi in the market will act as variables

Pic of Abbvie

Abbvie’s Mavyret has dominated the oral hepatitis C treatment market.

 

Last year the drug increased its market share to 85%.

 

Despite this increase in market share, the drug’s prescription performance fell 36% over the past 3 years.

 

The analysis is that the absolute size of the Hepatitis C treatment market, which has a limited number of patients, has been decreasing due to the near-cure effect of the treatments in the market, which eventually led to a reduction in the overall market size.

 

◆Mavyret occupies 85% of the HCV market...prescription performance drops 36% in 3 years According to the market research institution UBIST on the 4th, Abbvie’s oral HCV treatment Maryret’s outpatient prescriptions recorded KRW 29 billion last year.

 

This was a 10% increase compared to 2021 and is considered to be due to Maryret’s scope of reimbursement being expanded from adults to adolescents aged 12 years or older.

 

With the reimbursement extension, its market share increased to 85%.

 

Mavyret had quickly expanded its influence in the market since its release in September 2018, with its benefits of being pan-genotypic and short treatment period.

 

In 2019, its market share increased to 70% and then to 75% in 2020 and 2021.

 

However, in the long term, the reduction in prescription performance is clear.

 

Outpatient prescriptions fell from KRW 45.6 billion in 2019 to KRW 35.7 billion in 2020, then to KRW 26.3 billion in 2021.

 

This amounted to a 36% decrease in prescription performance compared to 2019.

 

The reason for the decrease in prescription performance despite the increase in market share is because of the reduced overall market size.

 

The size of the oral HCV treatment market has steadily decreased from KRW 135.3 billion in 2017 to KRW 73.7 billion in 2018, to KRW 65.1 billion in 2019, to KRW 47.4 billion in 2020, to KRW 35.1 billion in 2021, then to KRW 34.2 billion in 2022.

 

Compared to 2017, when the market had expanded to its maximum, the market had shrunk to one-fourth its size in 5 years.

 

◆Increased cure rate had contracted market size...All HCV drugs other than Mavyret·Harvoni earn less than KRW 100 million In the pharmaceutical industry, the cause of market contraction is due to the characteristics held by HCV treatments.

 

Before the introduction of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) like Mavyret, HCV had been a very critical condition.

 

However, the treatment effect of HCV drugs had increased dramatically with the introduction of BMS’s Daklinza and Sunvepra.

 

Then, Gilead Sciences' Sovaldi and Harvoni.

 

MSD’s Zepatier and Abbvie’s Mavyret followed, enhancing the treatment effect With the treatment effect high enough to be close to a complete cure, the market size quickly contracted with the number of patients being prescribed the drug increasing within the finite number of patients in the market.

 

With the rapid contraction of the market, some drugs that once dominated the market decided to withdraw from the domestic market.

 

In March 2021, BMS voluntarily withdrew the authorization for its for Daklinza and Sunvepra.

 

In June, Roche also voluntarily withdrew its injectable HCV treatment Pegasys from the domestic market.

 

The situation is also similar for drugs other than Mavyret.

 

Prescription performance of drugs that had occupied the market after Daklinza and Sunvepra, such as Zepatier, Sovaldi, and Harvoni are converging to nearly 0.

 

In the case of Zepatier, its prescription sales had recorded KRW 19.9 billion in 2018, but then fell rapidly to record less than KRW 50 million last year.

 

Sovaldi’s sales had also fallen to less than KRW 10 million last year from the KRW 84.3 billion in 2017, and Harvoni’s sales had fell to KRW 5 billion from the 40.9 billion in 2016.

 

◆Gilead releases a new drug for the first time in 5 years...makes winning bid with low price

Pic of Gilead Science

The market contraction is expected to continue in the market.

 

The variable is the new HCV treatment released by Gilead Science.

 

Gilead had released Epclusa and Vosevi, its next-generation HCV treatments in November last year.

 

These were the first new drugs for HCV released by Gilead in 5 years after Sovaldi and Harvoni.

 

Epclusa is a pan-genotypic treatment like Mavyret.

 

Although its treatment period is 12 weeks, 1 month longer than Mavyret, it has a more convenient means of administration of one pill once daily compared to three pill once daily administration of Mayvert.

 

Its price had been set lower than Mavyret.

 

Epclusa is priced at KRW 117,030 per tablet and Vosevi at KRW 120,836 per tablet.

 

In terms of total treatment cost, Epclusa costs KRW 9,830,520 and Vosevi 10,150,224.

 

This is cheaper than the KRW 10,922,352 of Mavyret.

 

Gilead plans to regain the glory it occupied in the past with treatments and Harvoni with its more competitive price than Mavyret.