Keytruda annual sales top the market for the first time

Generating KRW 155.7 billion last year, Keytruda pushes Lipitor aside and takes the lead

Tagrisso and Humira exceed over KRW 100 billion for the first time, rapid growth by Prevnar 13

An immunotherapy Keytruda has topped the South Korean pharmaceutical market for the first time.

 

Its outstanding effect confirmed in treating various cancer types have generated sales profit to dominate the market.

 

Anticancer treatment Tagrisso and immunotherapy Humira surpassed the annual sales of 100 billion won.

 

A pneumococcal pneumonia vaccine Prevnar 13 had its sales soaring amid the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) outbreak.

 

According to the pharmaceutical market research firm IQVIA on Feb.

 

21, MSD marked the highest sales last year with Keytruda making 155.7 billion won.

 

Keytruda pushed aside Lipitor and took over the first place making year-on-year growth of 24.8 percent.

 

It is first time for Keytruda took the market leadership for the time since its launch in 2015.

 

Immediately after the market release, Keytruda’s annual sales have remained around 10 billion won in 2016 and 2017, but the figure grew rapidly and hit 70 billion won in 2018.

 

The demand on the drug has surged as the healthcare insurance coverage was granted from August 2017 as a second-line therapy treating non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

 

Keytruda sales in 2019 exceeded 100 billion won, and it was also the drug with highest sales revenue last year.

 

Keytruda is an immune checkpoint inhibitor that blocks PD-L1 receptor from biding with PD-1 pathway on the surface of T-cell and activates immune cells to treat the tumor cells.

 

The drug showed notable efficacy in treating over 30 cancer types including melanoma, lung cancer, head and neck cancer, stomach cancer and cervical cancer.

 

The vastly wide range of indication eventually helped the drug to boost the sales.

 

Moreover, the sales in AstraZeneca’s Tagrisso rapidly grew as well.

 

Compared to the year before, Tagrisso last year grew by 34.5 percent and made 106.5 billion won.

 

Approved for sales in South Korea in 2016, Tagrisso is a second-line treatment prescribed to NSCLC patients who developed tolerance in EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) like Iressa, Tarceva and Giotrif.

 

The medicine is considered a third-generation treatment that overcame EGFR-TKI tolerance.

 

After receiving the healthcare reimbursement from December 2017, the drug sales have been growing consistently in South Korea, where it exceeded over 100 billion won a year in just four years into the market.

 

AbbVie’s autoimmune disease treatment Humira grew by 8.1 percent from the year before making 104.2 billion won last year, and exceeded the 100 billion won-line for the first time.

 

A tumor necrosis factor-alfa (TNF-α) inhibitor Humira has the most number of indications among TNF-α inhibitors with 14 indications.

 

Targeting such diverse patient group with the range of indications, the drug was able to maintain the high growth.

 

In 2020, Keytruda, Lipitor, Avastin, Tagrisso and Humira were the five drugs that broke through the 100 billion won-line.

 

All were developed by multinational pharmaceutical companies.

 

Although Lipitor sales dipped by 4.9 percent and handed over the top place to Keytruda, it still made over 100 billion won and consolidated its strong presence in the market.

 

Pfizer’s pneumococcal pneumonia vaccine Prevnar 13 generated 81.3 billion won last year and showed off an exceptional year-on-year growth of 64.8 percent.

 

Prevnar 13 is a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) that prevents infection from 13 types of pneumococcal pneumonia (1, 3, 4, 5, 6A, 6B, 7F, 9V, 14, 18C, 19A, 19F, 23F).

 

The vaccine can be inoculated to all age group older than 6-week-old.

 

Chong Kun Dang is in charge of distributing the vaccine for adult in South Korea, whereas the infant and children vaccine distribution is handled by Korea Vaccine.

 

The market research firm analyzes Prevenar 13 has been showing consistent growth in sales over the years from 2016 through 2019 making 56.1 billion won, 49.1 billion won, 50.5 billion won and 49.4 billion won, respectively, but last year’s sales soared abruptly amid COVID-19.

 

They evaluate the use of the vaccine in adults has leapt sharply as many were convinced by a number of experts claiming the vaccine can weakened the pneumonia symptoms induced from COVID-19, although it cannot prevent the pneumonia itself.

 

Amgen’s osteoporosis treatment Prolia joined the top ten by making 75.1 billion won last year showing year-on-year growth of 58.6 percent.

 

Released to the South Korean market in November 2016, Prolia is a biologic osteoporosis treatment directed against receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL), which interferes with the formation, activation, and survival of osteoclasts.

 

The drug’s sales started taking off since it was listed for reimbursement in 2017 as a second-line treatment.

 

And Prolia’s sales grew exponentially from 3.7 billion won in 2017 to 14.3 billion won in 2018.

 

Also when it successfully expanded the reimbursement as a first-line treatment from April last year, the figure hit 47.3 billion won and it continued to soar last year as well.

 

Experts point out the sales partnership with Chong Kun Dang has strengthened the growth.

 

Meanwhile, none of South Korean companies had their product in the top ten.

 

The influenza vaccines developed by GC Pharma and SK Bioscience both remarkably made 40 billion won each in last year’s fourth quarter.

 

However, in last year as a whole, they respectively made 63.8 billion won and 51.5 billion won, and failed to list their names on the leader board.