Neutropenia drugs' sales affected by their sales partners

Boryung to co-promote Neulasta from this year… had previously sold Neulapeg

Neulasta’s Q1 sales increase 5%... takes the lead in just 2 quarters

Neulapeg loses its lead with sales dropping 7.4% from the previous quarter

GC Pharma and Kyowa Kirin are fiercely competing for the lead in the neutropenia treatment market in Korea.

 

At the end of last year, GC Pharma’s Neulapeg had risen to the lead for the first time in 7 years, but Kyowa Kirin has again taken over the lead with Neulasta.

 

The addition of Boryung’s sales power to the products is affecting the sales rank of the two drugs in Korea.

 

According to the pharmaceutical market research institution IQVIQ, Neulasta sold the most and raised ₩6.5 billion in sales in the neutropenia treatment market in Q1 this year.

 

Rising 4.9% YoY, Neulasta took back the lead that it had lost to Neulapeg in Q4 last year.

 

Neutropenia treatments prevent cancer patients from developing the side effect of a weakened immune system due to decreased neutrophil levels when they receive anticancer therapies.

 

Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that fight infections from bacteria, etc.

 

Neulasta, a pegfilgrastim ingredient drug that was approved in 2012 in Korea is a second-generation neutropenia treatment.

 

Neulapeg’s rising sales have been challenging the lead held by Neulasta in the neutropenia treatment market.

 

Neulapeg is a neutropenia treatment made with pegteograstim and is indicated for ‘the reduction of the duration of neutropenia in patients treated to eliminate solid tumor and malignant lymphoma with cytotoxic chemotherapy.’ Neulapeg is the first biologic anticancer therapy that was developed with GC Pharma’s original technology Neulapeg had little commercial success in the early days of its release.

 

Sales in 2017 and 2018 were only ₩3.2 billion and ₩4 billion, respectively.

 

Most of its quarterly sales had been less than ₩1 billion.

 

However, its sales started to rise steeply with the addition of Boryung’s sales power GC Pharma had signed a joint sales agreement with Boryung in October 2018 to expand the share of Neulapeg by using the sales power held by Boryung Pharmaceutical in the field of anticancer drugs.

 

In Q1 2019, immediately after Boryung’s addition, Neulapeg accumulated sales of ₩1.3 billion and made a new quarterly sales record.

 

Since then, the drug has continued on its rise to record ₩6.3 billion in sales in Q4 last year.

 

Sales had increased sevenfold in only 3 years from the ₩0.9 billion in Q3 2018 before Boryung’s addition to take over the lead product in the market.

 

This change in market demographics is analyzed to be greatly influenced by the switching of sales partners of Neulasta and Neulapeg recently.

 

Boryung, which had driven the rapid growth of Neulapeg, has been selling Neulasta from the start of this year.

 

Boryung had contributed to Neulapeg’s rise to the top at the end of last year, and to Neulasta’s takeover of the lead again this year.

 

In place of Boryung, Jeil Pharmaceutical has been selling Neulapeg as GC Cross’s partner.

 

The company has experience selling Neulasta from 2014 to 2017.