Domestic drug Rosuzet/K-CAB sales performance is very good

Outpatient prescription performance analysis in the first quarter of 2021

Lipitor Leading with ₩43 billion

Sales of patent expiration drugs such as Twynsta and Plavix declined

Lipitor

Lipitor, a treatment for hyperlipidemia, kept the lead in outpatient prescription sales.

 

Drugs developed with domestic technology such as Rosuzet and Zemiglo, led by HK inno.N's K-CAB, increased sales despite prolonged COVID-19.

 

Original drugs are on a decreasing trend after patent expiration.

 

According to UBIST, a drug research institute on the 20th, Pfizer's Lipitor took the lead in overall outpatient prescriptions with ₩43 billion in the first quarter.

 

Lipitor is an Atorvastatin-based treatment for hyperlipidemia, which Pfizer Korea introduced to the domestic market in 1999.

 

After the expiration of the patent, the insurance drug price has dropped to half, and more than 130 generics have been poured out, but except for 2017 alone, it has maintained the lead in prescription sales for the past 10 years.

 

However, the uptrend has slowed.

 

Lipitor reduced the size of quarterly prescriptions by 8.5% compared to ₩47 billion a year earlier.

 

In January and February, prescriptions decreased by 9.9% and 11.2%, respectively.

 

The prescription amount in March was ₩15.3 billion, recovering to the previous year's level.

 

Hanmi's Rosuzet ranked second in prescriptions with an outpatient prescription amount of ₩26.6 billion, up 16.3% year-on-year.

 

Rosuzet is a hyperlipidemia complex consisting of two ingredients: Rosuvastatin Calcium and Ezetimibe.

 

Since its launch at the end of 2015, it has been ranked No.

 

1 in the same ingredient market.

 

It is analyzed that the strategy of entering the market before competitors while securing the right to use Ezetimibe from the patent holder MSD was effective.

 

Rosuzet recorded an increase of more than 10% each month compared to the previous year, even when there were many restrictions on face-to-face sales marketing activities due toCOVID-19 incident last year.

 

Rosuzet surpassed Gliatamin in the second half of last year, exceeding ₩8 billion in monthly prescriptions.

 

In March, it set its own highest prescription record at ₩9.4 billion and the monthly prescription amount exceeded ₩10 billion.

 

Daewoong's Gliatamin amounted to ₩23.2 billion in outpatient prescriptions in the first quarter of last year, down 1.7% from the same period last year.

 

Gliatamin is generic containing Choline alfoscerate, a brain function improvement agent.

 

As the government imposed two sanctions, including reduction in reimbursement and negotiations for redemption, and pharmaceutical companies protested, an unprecedented legal battle is expected, but the market impact of prescription drugs is still strong.

 

During the same period, the competitive item CKD Gliatilin Soft Cap is ranked 9th overall with outpatient prescription performance of ₩19.8 billion, up 1.2% from the same period last year.

 

HK inno.N's K-CAB showed an unrivaled growth rate, rising 54.7% year-on-year to ₩22.5 billion in prescriptions in the first quarter of last year.

 

K-CAB (Tegoprazan 50mg) is a P-CAB-based anti-ulcer drug released by HK inno.N in March 2019.

 

In gastric parietal cells, it represents a new mechanism of action that inhibits gastric acid secretion by competitively binding the proton pump and potassium ions located in the final stage of acid secretion.

 

The monthly prescription for K-CAB in the first year of its release rose from ₩1.7 billion to ₩5 billion.

 

After securing the indication for GERD as the first indication, the amount of prescriptions increased further with the addition of the indication for gastric ulcer treatment in July of the same year.

 

In January and February this year, when most pharmaceuticals were sluggish, the prescription ranking rose by two steps in the first quarter.

 

It is evaluated that the joint sales strategy with Chong Kun Dang, which has differentiated mechanisms compared to the existing PPI and strong sales power in the digestive system field, created synergy.

 

LG Chem's diabetes combination drug Zemimet's outpatient prescription for the first quarter was ₩20.8 billion.

 

It changed its own prescription record, rising 12.2% from the same period last year.

 

Zemimet is a combination drug that combines Metformin with Zemiglo, a new diabetes drug based on DPP-4 inhibitors developed by LG Chem.

 

Since 2016, it has signed a co-promotion contract with Daewoong and has been selling it jointly.

 

Eutropin, a growth-promoting hormone developed by LG Chem, doubled from the same period last year as it was prescribed ₩17.9 billion worth in the first quarter.

 

Since it was listed on the list of selective benefits at the end of 2018, it has grown rapidly in the prescription drug market.

 

Patent expiration drugs, which are copyrighted by global pharmaceutical companies, still rank at the top of the outpatient prescription market, but the uptrend did not show the same trend as in previous years.

 

The quarterly prescription size of the top 10 outpatient prescription drugs with expired patents such as Boehringer Ingelheim's high blood pressure combination drug Twynsta, Sanofiaventis' antithrombotic drug Plavix, Gilead Science's hepatitis B treatment Viread, and AstraZeneca's hyperlipidemia treatment Crestor declined.

 

Twynsta's outpatient prescription amount fell 7.7% YoY to W21.8bn in 1Q.

 

Twynsta is a hypertensive combination drug that combines ARB-based Telmisartan and CCB-based Amlodipine Besylate.

 

Yuhan Corporation has been selling jointly since 2010, but sales have declined compared to K-CAB since the third quarter of last year.

 

The two hepatitis B treatments that once dominated the prescription drug market had poor prescription performance.

 

Viread barely maintained ₩20 billion, with prescriptions falling 5% in the first quarter.

 

Baraclude by BMS Pharmaceutical, a rival drug, was ₩16.3 billion, down 5.1% from the previous year, ranking 20th in the prescription ranking.

 

For Plavix and Crestor, the amount of prescriptions decreased by 7.5% each.

 

For dementia treatment Handok Aricept, the quarterly prescription amount decreased by 7.3%.

 

Aricept developed by Eisai was changed from Daewoong to Handok in Korea for some items such as Aricept and Aricept Evess in May of last year.

 

The quarterly prescriptions for MSD's diabetes combination drug JANUMET and Astellas Pharmaceutical's prostatic hypertrophy treatment Harnal fell 3.5% and 6.2% respectively.