Keytruda's sales have been leading for two consecutive years

Keytruda leads for 7 consecutive quarters

Perjeta, Prolia, and Flavix is also growing rapidly

Keytruda, an immuno-cancer drug, has been leading the domestic pharmaceutical market for the second consecutive year.

 

K-CAB continued to soar among new drugs from multinational pharmaceutical companies.

 

According to IQVIA, a pharmaceutical research institute on the 26th, Keytruda of MSD Korea recorded 145.5 billion won in sales in the third quarter of this year, the largest number of all medicines.

 

It recorded a high growth rate of 27.8% year-on-year, widening the gap with the second-ranked Lipitor by more than 30 billion won.

 

Until the first half of the year, the gap between Keytruda and Lipitor was 19.9 billion won.

 

Keytruda ranked first among all medicines for the first time with sales of 155.7 billion won last year.

 

Keytruda, released in Korea in 2015, is an immune checkpoint inhibitor that treats cancer through activation of immune cells by inhibiting "PD-1" protein on the surface of immune cells T cells to prevent binding with PD-L1 receptors.

 

In Korea, 18 indications were approved for 14 carcinomas, including melanoma, lung cancer, and head and neck cancer.

 

Keytruda's quarterly sales remained around 3 billion won immediately after its release, but sales began to rise rapidly since August 2017 when insurance benefits were applied as a secondary treatment for non-small cell lung cancer.

 

Keytruda surpassed 50 billion won in sales in the third quarter.

 

If this trend continues, sales are expected to surpass 200 billion won this year.

 

Keytruda also posted cumulative sales of $12.6 billion in the third quarter of this year in the global market.

 

Perjeta and Prolia, new drugs from multinational pharmaceutical companies, also showed high sales growth.

 

Roche's Perjeta recorded 69.1 billion won in cumulative sales in the third quarter, up 29.9% from the previous year.

 

Perjeta is a drug administered in combination with Docetaxel and Trastuzumab in metastatic or localized HER2 positive breast cancer patients who are not operable and have never received HER2 targeted anticancer drugs or chemotherapy.

 

Amgen's Prolia's cumulative sales in the third quarter amounted to 65.2 billion won, up 18.7% from the same period last year.

 

Prolia, released in Korea in November 2016, is a biopharmaceutical osteoporosis treatment targeting protein RANKL.

 

Since 2017, sales of Prolia have started to rise since salaries were applied only to secondary treatment therapy.

 

Since April 2019, sales of Prolia have increased rapidly as insurance benefits have been recognized for primary treatment therapy.

 

Chong Kun Dang is jointly selling Prolia with Amgen.

 

It is an interesting phenomenon that Sanofi's antithrombotic drug Plavix increased 18.6% year-on-year to 46.8 billion won in cumulative sales in the third quarter.

 

Plavix's patent expired in 2007, and more than 100 generics have entered.

 

More than 10 years have passed since the patent expired, and sales have rather increased despite competing with more than 100 generics.