Acquisitions and spin-offs dominated headlines in 2019 and the tone was set very early with Bristol-Myers Squibb acquiring
New Jersey-based cancer drug company Celgene in a US$ 74 billion deal announced on
January 3, 2019. After factoring
in debt, the deal value ballooned to about US$ 95 billion, which according
to data compiled by Refinitiv, made it the largest healthcare deal on
record.
In the summer, AbbVie Inc,
which sells the world’s best-selling drug Humira, announced its acquisition of Allergan Plc, known for Botox and other cosmetic
treatments, for US$ 63 billion. While the companies are still awaiting
regulatory approval for their deal, with US$ 49 billion in combined 2019
revenues, the merged entity would rank amongst the biggest in the industry.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2019 (Free Excel Available)
The big five by pharmaceutical sales — Pfizer,
Roche, J&J, Novartis and Merck
Pfizer
continued
to lead companies by pharmaceutical sales by reporting annual 2019 revenues of
US$ 51.8 billion, a decrease of US$ 1.9 billion, or 4 percent, compared to
2018. The decline was primarily attributed to the loss of exclusivity of Lyrica in 2019,
which witnessed its sales drop from US$ 5 billion in 2018 to US$ 3.3 billion in
2019.
In 2018, Pfizer’s then incoming CEO Albert Bourla had mentioned that the company did not see the need for any large-scale M&A activity as Pfizer had “the best pipeline” in its history, which needed the company to focus on deploying its capital to keep its pipeline flowing and execute on its drug launches.
Bourla stayed true to his word and barring the acquisition of Array Biopharma for US$ 11.4 billion and a spin-off to merge Upjohn, Pfizer’s off-patent branded and generic established medicines business with
Mylan, there weren’t any other big ticket deals which were announced.
The
Upjohn-Mylan merged entity will be called Viatris and is expected to have 2020
revenues between US$ 19 and US$ 20 billion
and could outpace Teva to
become the largest generic company in the world, in term of revenues.
Novartis, which had
followed Pfizer with the second largest revenues in the pharmaceutical industry
in 2018, reported its first full year earnings after spinning off its Alcon eye
care devices business division that
had US$ 7.15 billion in 2018 sales.
In 2019,
Novartis slipped two spots in the ranking after reporting total sales of US$
47.4 billion and its CEO Vas Narasimhan continued his deal-making spree by buying New
Jersey-headquartered The Medicines Company (MedCo) for US$ 9.7
billion to acquire a late-stage cholesterol-lowering
therapy named inclisiran.
As Takeda Pharmaceutical Co was
busy in 2019 on working to reduce its debt burden incurred due to its US$ 62
billion purchase of Shire Plc, which was announced in 2018, Novartis also purchased
the eye-disease medicine, Xiidra, from the Japanese drugmaker for US$ 5.3 billion.
Novartis’ management also spent a considerable part of 2019 dealing with data-integrity concerns which emerged from its 2018 buyout of AveXis, the
gene-therapy maker Novartis had acquired for US$ 8.7 billion.
The deal gave Novartis rights to Zolgensma,
a novel treatment intended for children less than two years of age with the
most severe form of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Priced at US$ 2.1 million,
Zolgensma is currently the world’s most expensive drug.
However,
in a shocking announcement, a month after approving the drug, the US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) issued a press release on
data accuracy issues as the agency was informed by AveXis that
its personnel had manipulated data which
the FDA used to evaluate product comparability and nonclinical (animal)
pharmacology as part of the biologics license application (BLA), which was
submitted and reviewed by the FDA.
With US$
50.0 billion (CHF 48.5 billion) in annual pharmaceutical sales, Swiss drugmaker
Roche came in at number two position in 2019
as its sales grew 11 percent driven by
its multiple sclerosis medicine Ocrevus, haemophilia drug Hemlibra and cancer medicines Tecentriq and Perjeta.
Roche’s newly introduced medicines generated US$ 5.53 billion (CHF 5.4 billion) in growth, helping offset the impact of the competition from biosimilars for its three best-selling drugs MabThera/Rituxan, Herceptin and Avastin.
In late 2019, after months of increased
antitrust scrutiny, Roche completed
its US$ 5.1 billion acquisition of Spark Therapeutics to strengthen its presence in
gene therapy.
Last year, J&J reported almost flat worldwide sales of US$ 82.1 billion. J&J’s pharmaceutical division generated US$ 42.20 billion and its medical devices and consumer health divisions brought in US$ 25.96 billion and US$ 13.89 billion respectively.
Since J&J’s consumer health division sells analgesics, digestive health along with beauty and oral care products, the US$ 5.43 billion in consumer health sales from over-the-counter drugs and women’s health products was only used in our assessment of J&J’s total pharmaceutical revenues. With combined pharmaceutical sales of US$ 47.63 billion, J&J made it to number three on our list.
While the sales of products like Stelara, Darzalex, Imbruvica, Invega Sustenna drove J&J’s pharmaceutical business to grow by 4 percent over 2018, the firm had to contend with generic competition against key revenue contributors Remicade and Zytiga.
US-headquartered Merck, which is known as
MSD (short for Merck Sharp & Dohme) outside the United States and
Canada, is set to significantly move up the rankings next year fueled by its
cancer drug Keytruda, which witnessed a 55
percent increase in sales to US$ 11.1 billion.
Merck reported total revenues of US$ 41.75 billion and also
announced it will spin off its women’s health drugs,
biosimilar drugs and older products to create a new pharmaceutical
company with US$ 6.5 billion in annual revenues.
The firm had anticipated 2020 sales between US$ 48.8 billion and US$ 50.3 billion however this week it announced that the coronavirus pandemic will reduce 2020 sales by more than $2 billion.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2019 (Free Excel Available)
Humira holds on to remain world’s best-selling drug
AbbVie’s acquisition of Allergan comes as the firm faces the expiration of patent protection for Humira, which brought in a staggering US$ 19.2 billion in sales last year for
the company. AbbVie has failed to successfully acquire or develop a major new
product to replace the sales generated by its flagship drug.
In 2019, Humira’s US revenues increased 8.6 percent to US$ 14.86 billion while internationally, due
to biosimilar competition, the sales dropped 31.1 percent to US$ 4.30 billion.
Bristol Myers Squibb’s Eliquis, which is also marketed by Pfizer, maintained its number two position
and posted total sales of US$ 12.1 billion, a 23 percent increase over 2018.
While Bristol Myers Squibb’s immunotherapy treatment Opdivo, sold in partnership with Ono in Japan, saw sales increase from US$ 7.57 billion to US$ 8.0 billion, the growth paled in comparison to the US$ 3.9
billion revenue increase of Opdivo’s key immunotherapy competitor Merck’s Keytruda.
Keytruda took the number three spot in drug sales that
previously belonged to Celgene’s Revlimid, which witnessed a sales decline from US$ 9.69 billion to US$ 9.4 billion.
Cancer treatment Imbruvica, which is marketed
by J&J and AbbVie, witnessed a 30 percent increase in sales. With US$ 8.1
billion in 2019 revenues, it took the number five position.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2019 (Free Excel Available)
Vaccines – Covid-19 turns competitors into partners
This year has been dominated by the single biggest health emergency in years — the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. As drugs continue to fail to meet expectations, vaccine development has received a lot of attention.
GSK reported the highest vaccine sales of all drugmakers with
total sales of US$ 8.4 billion (GBP 7.16 billion), a significant portion of its
total sales of US$ 41.8 billion (GBP 33.754 billion).
US-based Merck’s vaccine division also reported a significant increase in sales to US$ 8.0 billion and in 2019 received FDA and EU approval to market its Ebola vaccine Ervebo.
This is the first FDA-authorized vaccine against the deadly virus which causes
hemorrhagic fever and spreads from person to person through direct contact with
body fluids.
Pfizer and Sanofi also reported an increase in their vaccine sales to US$ 6.4
billion and US$ 6.2 billion respectively and the Covid-19 pandemic has recently
pushed drugmakers to move faster than ever before and has also converted
competitors into partners.
In a rare move, drug behemoths — Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) —joined hands to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus.
The two companies plan to start human trials
in the second half of this year, and if things go right, they will file
for potential approvals by the second half of 2021.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2019 (Free Excel Available)
Our view
Covid-19 has brought the world economy to a grinding halt and shifted the global attention to the pharmaceutical industry’s capability to deliver solutions to address this pandemic.
Our compilation shows that vaccines and drugs
for infectious diseases currently form a tiny fraction of the total sales of
pharmaceutical companies and few drugs against infectious diseases rank high on
the sales list.
This could well explain the limited range of
options currently available to fight Covid-19. With the pandemic currently infecting
over 3 million people spread across more than 200 countries, we can safely
conclude that the scenario in 2020 will change substantially. And so should our
compilation of top drugs for the year.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2019 (Free Excel Available)
Impressions: 55119
This
week Phispers brings you scandals such as that of fake vaccines in Indonesia,
studies and analyses on drug prices and VC investments in biotech firms,
scrutiny on clinical trials done in India, new initiatives such the one
undertaken by the FDA on cancer, regulatory action, court cases and other
interesting pharma industry news from across the world. Did
the FDA commissioner receive payments from GSK and AstraZeneca?A database of
pharmaceutical company payments to physicians updated by the US Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), includes the name of the current US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf. “The database says Califf received five payments from GlaxoSmithKline for travel, lodging, food and
beverages, as well as a more than US $ 5,000 consulting fee from AstraZeneca in 2015. In 2014, when he was not working for the FDA, Califf received almost US $ 32,000 from companies and in 2013, he received more than US $ 28,000.” An FDA
spokesperson said Commissioner Califf has filed a dispute with CMS in regard to
the reported data. The news comes at
a time when awareness on pharma companies and their dealings with doctors is on
the rise. In the UK, the NHS has warned that drugs firms should stop
paying doctors and health service officials who refuse to be named in a new
transparency register. In Ireland, doctors and other healthcare professionals were paid €6.8 million by pharmaceutical companies last year. J&J
to pay US $ 70 million to family of boy who developed breastsLast week, a jury in America awarded US $ 70 million to the family
of a boy who developed
breasts after taking Johnson
& Johnson (J&J) unit Janssen Pharmaceuticals' antipsychotic drug Risperdal. The
jury found that the company failed to warn the boy's healthcare providers about
the risk of gynecomastia, which is breast growth in men or boys caused by a
hormonal imbalance. According to a copy of the verdict, the company intentionally
falsified, destroyed or concealed evidence in the case. Johnson & Johnson
and Janssen are facing more than 12,000 claims over Risperdal, according to J&J's
most recent quarterly report. Warning
letters for Chinese factories; two Indian firms on import alert It was a busy week for the US FDA as it issued warning letters to three facilities in China – Shanghai
Desano Pharmaceutical, Chongqing
Lummy Pharmaceutical and Guangzhou Haishi Biological Technology. The laboratory personnel at Desano were found conducting “unofficial” testing to an order that the FDA inspectors concluded that “the volume of data in these auxiliary ‘test folders’ suggests that performing unofficial analyses is a common practice at your facility.” Chongqing Lummy which had been placed on the FDA’s import alert list earlier this year had investigators finding analysts
manipulating results for multiple batches of API distributed to
the US. Guangzhou Haishi, which unlike Desano and Lummy, produces finished
formulations for the United States had investigators unveiling that the company
released finished batches of drug products without complete testing. And despite
the violations
uncovered, Haishi’s quality unit released multiple batches of drug products for distribution.While warning letters were being issued to companies based in China, two Indian companies – Harika
Drugs and Silverline Chemicals – which refused FDA inspections were placed on the import alert list. As all the news of compliance troubles was accumulating, Strides
Shasun successfully
passed an FDA inspection in India; while regulators in the United States
and Europe discussed ways on increasing
collaboration to reduce the inspection load. VCs
continue to invest in American biotech startupsWhile 2015 proved to be the biggest year on record for venture
investing in American biotech firms, this year could be equally big.
In 2015, a total of US $ 7.7 billion flowed into a range of startups. These
were largely clustered in Boston/Cambridge and San Francisco. This year, the
IPO window for drug developers has dropped considerably, but the VC money seems
to be flowing into the biotech space at the same pace as last year. Millions
of Indonesian children to be revaccinated due to fake vaccine scandal Fake
vaccines, that have been distributed across Indonesia since 2003, will have the
Indonesian government reinoculate children aged 10 and under. While it is not clear how many
children will receive their jabs again, it is estimated that the number runs in
millions. The
Indonesian police have arrested 15 suspects and seized
hundreds of bogus vaccines, including substances that passed off as vaccines
for polio and hepatitis B. The
fake-vaccine manufacturing and distribution rackets uncovered in Indonesia follows
a similar public-health outcry that occurred in
China a few months back. Scrutiny
on clinical trials performed in India continues Last week, two regulators -- Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) – took action pertaining to clinical trials conducted in India. The MHRA
suspended marketing approval for a widely used antibiotic – erythromycin – that had won clearance based on clinical trials conducted by India's Quest Life Sciences, due to concerns over the integrity of trial data. The MHRA's decision bars the sale of a generic version of
erythromycin that is being sold in the UK by Dawa Ltd, a Kenyan drug maker. The
EMA, on the other hand, has recommended the suspension of drug Riluzole
Alkem, for which studies were conducted at the Alkem
Laboratories site in Taloja (Maharashtra). Advertising Standards Authority bans Reckitt Benckiser’s painkiller ad There are strict rules that govern the advertising for pharmaceuticals
and Reckitt
Benckiser recently found out that there can be a blowback if you astray
from the rules. The company was selling
targeted painkillers for different ailments: period pain, migraines and
headaches. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned an advertisement for Nurofen Joint and Back because, despite
appearances, the pills in the range have no specific targeting powers. AstraZeneca
and Genzyme were recently shamed in advertisements for separate breaches of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry's (ABPI) Code of Practice. AstraZeneca apparently breached three clauses of the Code by producing a leave piece which provided misleading instructions on how to use the EMIS Web clinical system – which allows healthcare professionals to record, share and use vital information.Similarly, Genzyme breached the Code when it made a presentation about Fabrazyme (agalsidase beta) to an expert advisory group, that the PMCPA (Prescriptions Medicines Code of Practice Authority) says was “misleading, inconsistent with the Fabrazyme SPC and disparaging of a competitor product.” New
age antibiotics, a golden opportunity for Big PharmaAfter decades of ignoring the antibiotics business due to scant
rewards, Big Pharma is back to developing new
antibiotics. Research incentives from governments are spurring drug makers to
renew efforts to fight antimicrobial resistance and replenish the arsenal of
infection-fighting drugs. Giants such as Roche Holding and Merck are stepping
up their efforts. Several startups are seeking partners to help market new
products.“Some large pharmaceutical companies are re-entering the space, and new companies focused on antibacterial development are emerging as industry darlings,” said Ankit Mahadevia, chief executive officer of Spero Therapeutics LLC, a biopharmaceutical company in Massachusetts that’s developing novel treatments for bacterial infections. An
analysis that decodes drug price hikes, discounts and inflationA Bloomberg
analysis of 39 medicines sold in the US with global sales of more than US
$ 1 billion per annum revealed that 30 of them logged price increases of more
than double the rate of inflation from 2009 to 2015, even after estimated
discounts were factored in. Only six drugs had price increases in line with or
below inflation. The analysis is based on discount estimates from SSR Health, an
investment research firm that compared estimates of gross sales for each drug,
based on prescription data, to company-reported US net sales. According to the
analysis, discounts vary according to the disease type and competition. For
instance, the price increases in Humalog,
the popular, short-acting insulin made by Eli
Lilly were wiped out by even-bigger discounts. Gilead,
Massachusetts find middle ground on Hepatitis C drugAfter threatening Gilead
Sciences over the cost of its hepatitis C treatments, the commonwealth
of Massachusetts has reached a deal with the drug maker for rebates for some of its residents who are infected with the chronic disease. The cost of hepatitis C drugs for about 2,800 people covered by MassHealth, which is the commonwealth’s Medicaid programme, has so far totaled about US $ 318 million from late 2014 through early 2016. The deal is expected to save the state a significant amount of money. Meanwhile, Gilead Sciences recently raised prices on a pair of older
HIV medications that face patent expiration. This is part of the company’s strategy to encourage patients to switch to newer HIV treatments. However, this sort of pricing strategy is triggering criticism by AIDS activists. FDA
strengthens its cancer initiative Richard Pazdur – who has been with the Food and Drug Administration for 20 years – was recently elevated to a new role. He will be running a new Oncology
Center of Excellence that will coordinate all of the FDA’s clinical efforts in cancer. This oncology centre is part of the American Vice President Joseph Biden’s US $ 1 billion National Cancer Moonshort effort. At the FDA, Pazdur was evaluating new cancer drugs.Cancer medicines now account for 40 percent of the drugs under development. According to the FDA commissioner, Robert Califf, a few years ago, pharma companies were worried that their drug pipelines had run dry. Now, they are filing drug applications at a dizzying pace. Add to that, he says, new technologies like DNA sequencing and 3D printing, and there is an “avalanche” of new products coming. “We have to be prepared for this,” Califf says.
Impressions: 3202
Unrelated to the inspection of
the USFDA at the Dr. Reddys Srikakulam facility, Dr. Reddys sought permission from the Ministry of Environment,
Forests & Climate Change to expand
their drug and intermediate manufacturing at three locations.
All three chemical technical operation (CTO) units, CTO-I, CTO-II & CTO-III are located in Medak district and the announced planned capacity increases along with the anticipated capital investment were
Existing Capacity
Planned Capacity
Anticipated Investment
CTO I
14.7 TPM
45.5 TPM
Rs 30 crores
CTO II
21.9 TPM
68.9 TPM
Rs 45 crores
CTO - III
4.45 TPM
28.1 TPM
Rs 12 crores
*$1 million is approximately about Rs 6.2
crores & TPM is tons per month
In addition, the declaration given by Dr. Reddys also mentions the various products which will be produced at each facility (table below).
Needless to say, the plans are ambitious however with the growth witnessed by the Indian pharmaceutical industry over the past decade, one can understand Dr. Reddys commitment to investing further in their business.
Table Dr. Reddys production plans at various facilities
Product
Name
Planned
Capacity (TPM)
Facility
Location
Alendronate
Sodium Trihydrate
6.67
CTO
- III
Alfuzosin
2.33
CTO
- I
Altretamine
0.03
CTO
- I
Amlodipine
Besylate
33.33
CTO
- II
Amlodipine
Besylate
133.33
CTO
- III
Amlodipine
Besylate ( Ethyl 4 [2- (pthalamide)ethoxy] aceto acetate (TDM-2)
100
CTO
- II
Amlodipine
Maleate
30
CTO
- III
Amsacrine
0.07
CTO
- I
Anastrazole
0.83
CTO
- II
Aprepitant
3.33
CTO
- III
Aripiprazole
0.33
CTO
- II
Atomoxetine
1.67
CTO
- III
Atorvastatin
375.83
CTO
- II
Azacitidine
0.67
CTO
- I
Bicalutamide
0.03
CTO
- II
Bivalirudin
0.03
CTO
- II
Bivalirudin
Trifluoro Acetate
0.03
CTO
- I
Bortezomib
0.03
CTO
- I
Cabazitaxel
0.02
CTO
- I
Candesartan
cilexetil
6.67
CTO
- II
Cetirizine
Hydrochloride
66.67
CTO
- I
Cetirizine
16.67
CTO
- II
Ciprofloxacin
176.67
CTO
- II
Ciprofloxacin
HCl
533.33
CTO
- II
Ciprofloxacin Lactate
33.33
CTO
- II
Clopidogrel
Bisulfate
500
CTO
- I
Clopidogrel Premix
166.67
CTO
- II
Diluted
Everolimus 5% (Everolimus)
0.33
CTO
- II
Disodium
Pamidronate
0.33
CTO
- III
Docetaxel
1.9
CTO
- I
Dutasteride
3.33
CTO
- II
Esomeprazole
magnesium
66.67
CTO
- III
Ezetimibe
3.33
CTO
- II
Fexofenadine
Hydrochloride
500
CTO
- I
Finasteride
10
CTO
- II
Fluoxetine
110
CTO
- I
Fondaparinux
Sodium
0.33
CTO
- II
Galantamine
0.03
CTO
- II
Gemcitabine
13.33
CTO
- I
Glimepiride
13.33
CTO
- II
Imatinib
0.17
CTO
- I
Irinotecan
0.33
CTO
- I
Ketorolac
66.67
CTO
- II
Lacidipine
5
CTO
- III
Lamotrigine
33.33
CTO
- I
Lansoprozole
8.33
CTO
- III
Letrozole
0.03
CTO
- II
Levocetrizine
Di HCl
10
CTO
- III
Levofloxacin
200
CTO
- II
Lomustine
1.33
CTO
- I
Losartan
Postassium
150
CTO
- I
Meloxicam
0.03
CTO
- I
Memantine
HCl
3.33
CTO
- II
Mesalamine
0.03
CTO
- II
Metoprolol
Succinate
266.67
CTO
- II
Moxifloxacin
116.67
CTO
- II
Norfloxacin
0.03
CTO
- I
Omeprazole
133.33
CTO
- III
Omeprazole
Magnesium
50
CTO
- III
Omeprazole
Sodium
10
CTO
- III
Omerprazole Form B
33.33
CTO
- III
Paclitaxel
0.33
CTO
- I
Pantoprazole
Sodium
100
CTO
- III
paroxetine
HCl
0.03
CTO
- II
Pemetrexed
0.67
CTO
- I
Rabeprazole
Sodium
83.33
CTO
- III
Raloxifene
33.33
CTO
- II
Ramipril
100
CTO
- III
Repaglinide
6.67
CTO
- II
Rivastigmine
6.67
CTO
- II
Risperidone
13.33
CTO
- I
Rivastigmine
6.667
CTO
- I
Rizatriptan
Benzoate
1.33
CTO
- II
Rocuronium
Bromide
0.03
CTO
- II
Ropinrole
HCl
1.83
CTO
- III
Rosiglitazone
3.33
CTO
- II
Sparfloxacin
3.33
CTO
- I
Tacrolimus
5
CTO
- II
Tadalafil
3.33
CTO
- II
Telmisartan
100
CTO
- II
Temozolamide
0.03
CTO
- I
Terbinafine
HCl
133.33
CTO
- III
Tizanidine
HCl
16.67
CTO
- III
Topotecan
0.07
CTO
- I
valganciclovir
0.03
CTO
- I
Vardenafil
3.33
CTO
- II
Voriconazole
8.33
CTO
- III
Ziprasidone
Hydrochloride
100
CTO
- I
Zoledronic
acid
0.33
CTO
- III
Zolmitriptan
0.83
CTO
- I
Zonisamide
0.03
CTO
- II
Impressions: 3164