Prevenar and Sky Cellflu soar, Keytruda tops again

Q3 2020 sales report: vaccines perform outstandingly amid COVID-19

Tagrisso and Prolia show steady growth, Keytruda quarterly sales mark KRW 41.6 billion

The novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) has shuffled the top pharmaceutical market leader board.

 

While immunotherapy Keytruda topped the market again, the sales in a pneumococcal 13-valent conjugate vaccine Prevenar 13 and a flu vaccine Sky Cellflu 4 surged dramatically.

 

The sales in innovative new drugs like Tagrisso and Prolia also grew noticeably.

 

According to a pharmaceutical market research firm IQVIA on Nov.

 

25, MSD’s Keytruda generated 41.6 billion won in last third quarter.

 

Compared to the same quarter last year, the figure soared by 25.9 percent and topped the market for three consecutive quarters, pushing Lipitor down.

 

Top ten pharmaceutical sales in the third quarter of 2020 (Source: IQVIA)

Keytruda took the lead for the first time in last first quarter by making 34.7 billion won and approximately 40 million won difference with cholesterol-lowering Lipitor.

 

In the second and third quarters, Keytruda widened the gap with Lipitor.

 

At the third quarter point, Keytruda accumulated sales of 113.8 billion won, which was 8.6 billion won more than Lipitor with 105.2 billion won.

 

If the drug continues the trend, it is highly likely to take the top spot this year, when it marks the sixth year of launch.

 

Released to the South Korean market in 2015, 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.

 

Immediately after the market release, Keytruda’s sales have remained around 3 billion won, but the figure grew rapidly since the second half of 2017.

 

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

 

Keytruda’s sales in the first quarter of 2018 surpassed 10 billion won, and climbed up to the 20 billion won-line in the following fourth quarter.

 

From the second quarter last year, it has reached the 30 billion won-line, and exceeded 40 billion won in this year’s third quarter.

 

The demand for Keytruda in the prescription market continued to grow amid COVID-19.

 

A pneumonia vaccine Prevenar 13 had an exponential growth.

 

In the third quarter, the vaccine made 24.2 billion won, doubling last year third quarter’s sales.

 

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).

 

Provided to all age groups older than 6-week-old, the vaccines for adults are distributed by Chong Kun Dang, whereas Korea Vaccine is in charge of distributing vaccine for children and infants.

 

Prevenar 13’s sales usually peak in the fourth quarter, when typically the demand for vaccination surges, and drop in the first quarter.

 

This year’s first quarter sales grew more than the previous quarter, making 17.6 billion won, and its growth continued on for the second and third quarters, surpassing the quarterly sales 20 billion won-line for the first time.

 

Quarterly sales growth of Prevenar 13 (Unit: KRW 1 million) Source: IQVIA

The sources analyze Prevenar 13’s sales soared due to 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.

 

Besides Prevenar 13, Sky Cellflu 4 also entered the top ten as it generated 21.1 billion won amid COVID-19.

 

Sky Cellflu Quadrivalent by SK Bioscience

Sky Cellflu is an influenza vaccine solely developed by SK Bioscience that earned the health authority’s approval in 2015.

 

Unlike typical egg-based vaccine, the Korean-made quadrivalent vaccine is produced with top-of-the-line aseptic culture system, which does not require preservative.

 

As all flu vaccines for this year were quadrivalent and the supply for the vaccines increased with COVID-19, Sky Cellflu 4’s sales skyrocketed.

 

The amount of influenza vaccines distributed to the South Korean in this influenza season was about 29.5 million doses with an increase of 20 percent from last year.

 

The Korean company raised the Korean market distribution volume as it predicted the surge in flu vaccine demand due to COVID-19.

 

SK Bioscience shipped about 9 million doses with 70 percent jump compared to last year.

 

AstraZeneca’s anticancer treatment Tagrisso continued to generate significant sales.

 

The third quarter sales were 32.4 percent higher than last year, as it generated 27.9 billion won.

 

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, Tagrisso has been growing consistently in South Korea.

 

The sales in the third quarter of 2017 marked 2.7 billion won, but it grew by tenfold in just two years time.

 

Amgen’s osteoporosis treatment joined the top ten by making 20 billion won in the third quarter.

 

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 exploded when it successfully expanded the reimbursement as a first-line treatment from April last year.

 

Also its sales partnership with Chong Kun Dang gave a boost as well.