YescartaㆍKimriah’s combined annual sales seem to surpass KRW 1 trillion
The cancer immunotherapy market is still surging. If the current trend continues, annual sales are expected to surpass KRW 30 trillion.
As Newsmp totaled major cancer immunotherapy’s quarterly reports, it has found that sales of five drugs, Keytruda (MSD), Opdivo, Yervoy (BMS), Tecentriq (Roche), Imfinzi (AstraZeneca), exceeded KRW 8 trillion in 3Q. (exchange rate as of Nov 14)
Since the sales of Bavencio (MerckㆍPfizer) have not been tallied, it seems to surpass KRW 30 trillion a year as it has already achieved more than KRW 8 trillion in quarterly sales with only five drugs.
The biggest product, Keytruda, exceeded KRW 4 trillion in sales in 3Q. With a 21.0% increase YoY, the gap with others is widening even further.
The cumulative sales of 3Q amounted to KRW 11.57 trillion,↑30.3% YoY, exceeding KRW 10 trillion in Q3, and about to reach KRW 15 trillion in annual sales.
Opdivo, which had a clear negative growth trend since 3Q of last year, succeeded in a slight rebound in Q3.
Although it still did not reach the same level as last year, its quarterly sales were close back to KRW 2 trillion again from KRW 1.8 trillion in Q2.
However, the sales gap with Keytruda, which was doubled in 2Q, has widened further, and the cumulative sales gap of three quarters is also now doubled.
The cumulative sales gap of 3Q between Keytruda and Opdivo more than doubled to KRW 5.78 trillion from KRW 2.82 trillion last year.
Latecomers are also increasing their sales with quick steps. In 3Q, Tecentriq and Imfinzi nearly grew by 40% and 30%.
Tecentriq was up 55.4% to KRW 2.45 trillion in three quarters’ cumulative sales and 42.3% for Imfinzi to KRW 1.66 trillion, but the distance between Keytruda and them is so far that it would not narrow.
Despite the repeated fluctuations, Yervoy once again rebounded. In 3Q, sales increased 26.3% YoY, and 9-month cumulative sales also advanced by 10% to KRW 1.35 trillion.
Meanwhile, the CAR-t therapy market is still showing slow growth. On a YoY basis, both Yescarta (Gilead) and Kimriah (Novartis) posted high growth rates, but not this year.
Yescarta retreated back to KRW 150 billion from 2Q, leaving behind a weaker performance than in 1Q, while Kimriah also stayed at KRW 130 billion for two quarters in a row.
Nevertheless, the 9-month cumulative sales of Yescarta and Kimriah are approaching KRW 1 trillion by KRW 483.3 billion and KRW 370.8 billion.
