Sales of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments retreat in the final stage of the pandemic

[Newsmp] As the COVID-19 pandemic is gradually heading toward the endpoint, sales of related treatments and vaccines have been affected.

According to the third-quarter reports of global Big Pharma, most of the sales of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments decreased from the first or the second quarter.

Among the COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, Evusheld (AstraZeneca), the monoclonal antibody therapy, was the only drug whose sales in the third quarter increased from the first and second quarters.

All COVID-19 vaccines saw their sales decrease compared to the last two quarters. Pfizer’s Comirnaty, which posted more than KRW 12 trillion in sales in the second quarter, was reduced to KRW 6 trillion, while Moderna’s Spikevax also retreated from KRW 6 trillion to KRW 4 trillion.

Compared to the same period last year, AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria declined by 82.7%, Comirnaty by 66.1%, Spikevax by 35.1% and Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 Vaccine by 2.6%.

The only treatment Veklury (Gilead Sciences) in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and alternatives Olumiant (Eli Lilly) and Actemra’s (Roche) sales also dived by 44~55% year-on-year, further increasing their negative growth than in the second quarter.

Veklury’s sales at least doubled from the previous second quarter, but it was only half of the last quarter when it exceeded KRW 2 trillion.

Antibody treatments are also shrinking in sales. Roche’s Ronapreve recorded only KRW 30 billion, or 5%, in sales for two consecutive quarters compared to the same period last year.

GSK’s Xevudy and Eli Lilly’s COVID-19 Antibody performed better than in the same period last year, but their sales were reduced by a quarter compared to the previous first quarter when they peaked.

Pfizer’s Paxlovid continued its momentum by posting sales of more than KRW 10 trillion in the third quarter among oral treatments, but Paxlovid also fell short of the second quarter’s sales of KRW 11 trillion.

MSD’s Lagevrio had sales of about KRW 4.5 trillion in the first quarter, more than twice that of Paxlovid, but its sales have plunged since then, reaching only KRW 600 billion in the third quarter.