Sales of Arcoxia (Etoricoxib) are sluggish

5 companies released generics after June

4% of the original sales

Generics for Arcoxia, an anti-inflammatory pain reliever based on COX-2 inhibitors (Etoricoxib) have been released, but sales in the market are sluggish.

 

This is because there is still a high preference for original drugs at the medical site, and even the original drugs are pushed back by Celebrex, a leading item in the same family market.

 

According to UBIST, a pharmaceutical market research firm on the 11th, the total prescription amount for generics for Arcoxia from June to September is around 31 million won.

 

During this period, the original prescription amount is around 730 million won.

 

Generic prescriptions account for only 4% of the original.

 

Generics challenged Arcoxia's patent in September 2019.

 

In April last year, it won the passive trial to confirm the scope of rights.

 

It succeeded in avoiding patents that were scheduled to expire in 2023.

 

Theragen Etex, Guju, Hana, Hutechs, Union Korea, Aju, Daewoo, Boryung, Arlico, and Reyon received generic for exclusivity from April this year to January next year.

 

Generics have been released in earnest since June this year.

 

Aju, Arlico, Hutechs, Hana, Theragen, and Etex are confirmed to have released generics one after another.

 

However, for four months, their total prescription amount is only 31 million won.

 

Hana's sales are the highest at 19 million won, and sales of the other generics are less than 10 million won.

 

This is because the original preference is still high at the prescription site.

 

As of last year, outpatient's prescription for Celebrex amounted to 44.7 billion won.

 

It is more than 12 times Arcoxia's sales of 3.5 billion won.42 billion won and 2.7 billion won worth of prescriptions were prescribed by the third quarter, respectively, widening the gap by 15 times.

 

Since 2010, more than 200 generics for Celebrex have been competing.

 

Generics for Arcoxia have little time to compete.

 

The generic for exclusivity period will end in January next year, but no company has started developing generics for Arcoxia yet.