Gilead Veklury back to KRW 2 trillion… Roche Ronapreve, KRW 620 billion
Sales of vaccines as well as antiviral drugs and antibody treatments are increasing significantly due to the global spread of COVID-19.
Since vaccinations began in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of last year, treatments sales have decreased significantly, but their demand has increased dramatically in the third quarter of this year.
Newsmp tallied the major global pharmaceutical companies’ reports and found that the global sales of the four vaccines used in South Korea exceeded KRW 20 trillion in the third quarter alone (based on the exchange rate on the 24th).
In particular, Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty posted sales of KRW 15.4 trillion in the third quarter, which is more than Pfizer’s quarterly sales before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Comirnaty’s sales are increasing exponentially from KRW 180 billion in the fourth quarter of last year to KRW 4.1 trillion in the first quarter of this year, KRW 9.3 trillion in the second quarter, and KRW 15.5 trillion in the third quarter.
Moderna, which currently has the COVID-19 vaccine as only one commercial item, posted sales of KRW 5.7 trillion in the third quarter.
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine surpassed Pfizer’s by starting at KRW 240 in the fourth quarter of last year, but in the first quarter, it posted KRW 2 trillion in sales, half of Pfizer’s.
Since then, unlike Pfizer, which has soared almost exponentially, the Moderna vaccine has increased relatively in the form of an arithmetic series, widening the gap with Pfizer by one-third.
Nevertheless, Moderna, which had no product sales due to a lack of commercial items before the launch of the COVID-19 vaccine, is now good as a giant global pharmaceutical company with a vaccine alone.
Janssen vaccine also saw a significant increase in sales in the third quarter. It remained in the KRW 100 billion mark in the first and second quarters but rose to KRW 600 billion in the third quarter. However, compared to mRNA vaccines, there is a considerable difference.
AstraZeneca vaccine started at KRW 320 billion in the first quarter and did not show much difference in the third quarter after exceeding KRW 1 trillion in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, Gilead’s Veklury, the first COVID-19 treatment, has returned to its peak again in sales, which had decreased sharply since the vaccination began.
Veklury, an antiviral medicine, rose to KRW 2.3 trillion in sales in the fourth quarter of last year, but they were greatly reduced to KRW 1.7 trillion in the first quarter and KRW 980 billion in the second quarter after the launch of vaccination.
However, in the third quarter, it again achieved sales of KRW 2.28 trillion, which is comparable to the that of the fourth quarter last year.
Roche’s Ronapreve, recently approved by the European Commission along with Celltrion’s Regkirona, reported KRW 600 billion mark in sales in the third quarter. In the first half, Ronapreve’s sales amounted to KRW 750 billion.
On the other hand, Lilly’s antibody treatment sales, which entered the market earlier, peaked at about KRW 200 billion in the first quarter but plummeted to KRW 1.9 billion in the third quarter.
