Novartis Korea recorded the largest sales last year

Largest since sales of ₩43.4 billion in Korea last year, ↑4% year-on-year

Sales of 2 new products of ₩25.4 billion, existing products such as Lucentis also increased

Novartis Korea recorded the largest sales last year.

 

The first time since the launch of Korea, the sales of representative medicines and new drugs have reached ₩500 billion.

 

According to Novartis Korea's audit report submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service on the 8th, the company's sales last year were ₩493.4 billion, up 4.1% from the previous year.

 

It is the largest since the establishment of the Novartis Korea branch in 1997.

 

In the same period, operating profit decreased by 85.9% from the previous year to ₩6 billion.

 

Novartis Korea is a foreign-invested company founded in September 1984 under a joint venture agreement between Dongwha Pharm.

 

Co., Ltd.

 

(now Dong-wha) And Swiss pharmaceutical company Sandoz (now Novartis AG).

 

In April 1997, the company name was changed from Korea Sandoz Co., Ltd.

 

to Novartis Korea.

 

Novartis AG and Novartis Pharma AG own 98.3% of the shares and Dong-wha Pharm has the remaining 1.7%.

 

Novartis Korea's newly launched products led the sales increase.

 

According to the drug market research institute IQVIA, the sales of the chronic heart failure treatment drug Entresto (Sacubitril/Valsartan) last year increased by 106.1% from the previous year to ₩13.2 billion.

 

Sales of psoriasis treatment Cosentyx (Secukinumab) amounted to ₩12.3 billion, a 283.5% increase from the first year of release.

 

Entresto and Cosentyx alone recorded sales of over ₩25.4 billion.

 

Lucentis (Ranibizumab), a treatment for macular degeneration, is not a new product, but sales have skyrocketed since the release of the pre-field formulation.

 

Lucentis made sales of ₩30 billion last year.

 

48.2% year-on-year, breaking record sales.

 

Sales of existing products are also on the rise.

 

Last year's sales of ARB-based hypertension complex Exforge (Amlodipine/Valsartan) increased by 2.3% year-on-year to ₩70.6 billion, the highest among Novartis' drugs.

 

Exforge is a representative item that enjoyed reflex profits after generic drugs were discontinued after NDMA, a carcinogenic substance was detected in Chinese Valsartan-based drug (API) in July 2018.

 

Sales continued to rise after sales exploded in the third quarter of 2018.

 

The sales of leukemia treatment ‘Gleevec’ last year were ₩46.7 billion, and 'Tasigna' sales were ₩40 billion, an increase of 8.3% and 8.4%, respectively.

 

Although the profitability slightly deteriorated as the expenditure increased during the new product release process and the base effect resulting from the achievement of the largest operating profit in the past year, both the existing product and the new product showed stable sales.

 

Novartis Korea posted an operating loss of ₩58.5 billion in 2017.

 

After receiving investigations from the prosecution in the first quarter of 2016 on charges of providing inappropriate economic benefits to health professionals through medical magazines, etc., the deficit was recorded in 15 years, reflecting the fines imposed.

 

As a result of the prosecution for violating the pharmaceutical affairs law, an initial trial this year was sentenced to a fine of ₩40 million and the second trial is in progress.

 

Novartis is expected to accelerate its pipeline restructuring this year.

 

The company compiled some items from the central nervous system (CNS) medicines that had relatively low profitability last year.

 

In addition, the two domestic licenses of the antiepileptic drug 'Trileptal' and the Alzheimer's dementia drug 'Exelon' were handed over to Handok, and the rest of the items, such as the antiepileptic drug 'Tegretol', Parkinson's disease drugs 'Stalevo', and 'Comtan' were not assigned a separate sales marketing manpower according to the ploicy of the head office.

 

This year, it plans to focus on introducing 'Kymriah', a CAR-T treatment that has recently applied for permission, and 'Zolgensma', a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

 

An official from Novartis Korea said that sales of new products such as Entresto and Cosentyx are growing steadily.

 

He said this year, that the company will focus on the reimbursement expansion of asthma treatment 'Xolair' and anti-cancer drug 'Kisqali' and introducing entirely new treatment platforms such as Kymriah and Zolgensma.