Keytruda leads domestic market sales … Perjeta·Prolia also

New drugs from MNCs show strength… K-cab heads sales among locally developed drugs

Keytruda ranks 1st place for 5 consecutive quarters in quarterly sales by product

The cancer immunotherapy ‘Keytruda’ firmly held its lead in the domestic pharmaceutical market.

 

This is the 5th consecutive quarter from the first quarter of last year that the drug has recorded top sales among all pharmaceuticals in Korea.

 

Also, the new biopharmaceuticals introduced by multinational pharmaceutical companies like ‘Perjeta,’ and ‘Prolia’ showed rapid growth.

 

Among locally developed new drugs, K-cab showed the most rapid growth.

 

According to the pharmaceutical research firm IQVIA on the 23rd, MDS’s Keytruda recorded the highest sales of 44.1 billion won in the first quarter this year.

 

This is a 27.0% year-on-year increase from the same quarter of the previous year, and comfortably exceeded sales of 'Lipitor,’ which took second place.

 

Since taking the lead in the first quarter last year with 34.7 billion won in sales, Keytruda has held its top place for 5 consecutive quarters.

 

Keytruda is an immune checkpoint inhibitor that was released in Korea in 2015.

 

The drug inhibits the ‘PD-1’ protein expressed at the cell surface of activated T cells.

 

It has boasted overwhelming performance in over 30 types of cancer starting from melanoma to lung cancer, head and neck cancer, stomach cancer, cervical cancer, etc.

 

Immediately after its release, Keytruda’s quarterly sales remained around 3 billion won.

 

However, its sales rose rapidly after the health authorities granted its reimbursement for second-line NSCLC from August 2017.

 

In the first quarter of 2018, Keytruda’s sales exceeded 10 billion and exceeded 30 billion in the second quarter of 2019.

 

In the first quarter of last year, Keytruda caught up with Lipitor, which had kept the lead since the fourth quarter of 2015 in sales, and rose to the top.

 

Since then, Keytruda has maintained its strong growth, increasing the sales gap to 9 billion won last quarter.

 

Among the top ranks, Perjeta, Prolia, and K-cab showed marked growth.

 

Sales of Roche’s Perjeta rose 29.6% YoY in the first quarter of this year to record 21.4 billion Korean won and gained its place in the top 10.

 

Perjeta indicated for use in combination with trastuzumab and docetaxel in patients with HER2-positive metastatic or locally recurrent unresectable breast cancer, who have not received previous anti-HER2 therapy or chemotherapy for their disease.

 

Perjeta was approved reimbursement as first-line treatment for HER2-positive metastatic or locally recurrent unresectable breast cancer who have not received previous anti-HER2 therapy in 2017.

 

In May 2019, the drug was granted selective reimbursement, and its sales surged as the Perjeta and trastuzumab combination became the established standard of care in the neoadjuvant treatment environment.

 

Sales of Amgen’s Prolia increased 38.1% YoY to record 19.9 billion won in the first quarter of this year.

 

Prolia is a biologic therapy that was released in Korea in November 2016 for treating osteoporosis by targeting RANKL, an essential protein for the formation, function, survival of osteoclasts that destroys bone.

 

Prolia’s sales started growing since 2017 after it received reimbursement as second-line treatment.

 

After the reimbursement was extended to cover first-line treatment since April 2019, Prolia’s sales increased exponentially.

 

Its effort to strengthen its sales power through a partnership with Chong Kun Dang was also cited as a factor for Prolia’s sales growth.

 

HK Inno.N’s new anti-ulcer drug K-cab showed strong growth amidst the chart full of drugs from multinational pharmaceutical companies.

 

K-cab recorded 19.7 billion won in sales, a 56.7% YoY increase from the first quarter last year, and was the only locally developed drug to land in the top 10 sales.

 

‘K-cab (tegoprazan)’ is an anti-ulcer potassium-competitive acid blocker (P-CAB) that was released in March 2019 by HK Inno.N (previously known as CJ Healthcare).

 

Its new mechanism of action competitively binds the proton pump, the final common pathway for acid secretion in gastric parietal cells, with potassium ions to inhibit acid secretion.

 

After first receiving approval for as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) therapy, K-cab’s prescription surged with the indication expansion to the treatment of stomach ulcers.

 

K-cab has recorded the most amount of sales among all drugs developed in Korea.