Edalbi exceeds $2 billion in sales… Kanarb is in the lead
Popular complex ARB+CCB drugs stay at 5% of growth rate
In the first quarter, the growth of the popular ARB antihypertensive agents showed a significant slowdown.
Even in the aftermath of COVID-19, most of the growth rate remained around 5%.
Nevertheless, in 2018, Diovan (Novartis), which has rebounded since NDMA, classified as a carcinogen, was detected in some Valsartan generics, continued to develop itself.
According to IQVIA, Diovan’s sales surpassed $7 billion in the first quarter, with an increase in 14.6% compared to last year.
The growth seemed stagnant during the third and fourth quarters by remaining its sales about $6.9 billion, but it is on the upturn with a $7 billion range.
Although Diovan is narrowing the gap by remarkably expanding its sales, there has been no change in Kanarb’s (Boryung Pharm.) market dominance.
Kanarb, which exceeded $9 billion in the second quarter of last year, raised its sales to $9.4 billion in the first quarter. The growth was also the second highest among off-patent ARB original drugs after Diovan.
Atacand (Astra Zeneca) and Cozaar (MSD) both achieved $6 billion in sales with a 5.5% growth rate.
Atacand, which consistently had $6 billion sales until the third quarter of last year, retreated to $5.9 billion in the fourth quarter, but immediately returned to $6 billion.
While all four leading group drugs reserved more than 5% of growth rate, the rest of the ARB original medicines had a low growth rate of less than 5%.
Micardis (Boehringer Ingelheim) had the highest growth rate (4%), and Olmetec (DaeWoong Pharm) and Aprovel (Sanofi) both recorded 2.4% growth, however, Teveten (Handok) grew 14.3% backward resulting quarterly earnings under $500 million.
Edalbi (Takeda), which entered the market latest and still maintains patent with Kanarb, made $2 billion after its launch with a growth rate of over 30%.
The first generation of complex ARB+CCB drugs also appeared to be poor growth. Nonetheless, Twynsta (Boehringer Ingelheim) has entered the $20 billion mark despite its 5.8% growth rate.
Exforge (Novartis), which has grown considerably after the detection of Valsartan’s generic NDMA, showed only 5.7% growth in the first quarter, unlike Diovan, which recorded a double-digit growth rate for the same reason.
However, quarterly earnings, which remained at $17 billion marks throughout the fourth quarter of last year, reached $18 billion marks with $18.4 billion.
Amosartan (Hanmi Pharm.) also achieved sales of $12 billion for the second quarter in a row with a 5.9% growth rate, but Sevikar (Daiichi Sankyo) and Telminuvo (Chong Kun Dang Pharm.) fell behind the leading group with a growth rate of 3.7% and 1.2%.
Meanwhile, in the ARB+CCB+Diuretics three-drug combination market, sales of Sevikar HCT (Daiichi Sankyo), which kept growing backward after patent expiration, increased by 0.5%, and it was out of the degrowth trend with low growth.
Amosartan Plus (Hanmi Pharm.) rose to $4 billion with a 30% growth rate, while Twotops Plus (Ildong Pharm.) also continued to grow.
