These medications topped the list of money-makers last year. [© grandeduc - Fotolia.com]
What makes a drug a success? Is it a great ad campaign, or promotions from doctors? Does the drug address a much-needed area of medicine, or treat a disease in an exceptional way with few side effects? Regardless of what makes a drug take off, the way to measure its overall success is hard to repute: sales.
GEN updates their list of the best-selling drugs of the 21st century with the top 20 best-selling prescription drugs worldwide of 2012, based on sales figures released by biopharma companies in press announcements, annual reports, and conference calls during 2012 and 2011. Drugs are ranked by 2012 sales. CER denotes “constant exchange rate.”
#20. Truvada (emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate)
Drug maker: Gilead Sciences
Indication(s): HIV-1 infection in patients aged 12 years and older, in combination with other anti-HIV-1 medicines; also used in pre-exposure prophylaxis with safer sex practices to reduce HIV-1 risk in men who have sex with men at high risk of getting infected with HIV-1 through sex, and heterosexual couples where one partner has HIV-1 and the other does not
2012 sales: $3.181 billion
2011 sales: $2.875 billion
% Change: 10.6%
Q4 2012 sales: $832 million, up 11.5% from $746 million in Q4 2011
#19. Symbicort (budesonide and formoterol)
Drug maker: AstraZeneca
Indication(s): Asthma deemed untreatable via long-term asthma control medicine, or deemed sufficiently severe, in patients aged 12 years and older; COPD, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema, in adults
2012 sales: $3.194 billion
2011 sales: $3.148 billion
% Change: 5% at CER
Q4 2012 sales: $891 million, up 8% from $839 million in Q4 2011
#18. Atripla (efavirenz, emtricitabine, and tenofovir)
Drug maker: Gilead Sciences
Indication(s): HIV-1 infection in patients aged 12 years and older who weigh at least 40 kg (88 lbs)
2012 sales: $3.574 billion
2011 sales: $3.225 billion
% Change: 10.8%
Q4 2012 sales: $917 million, up 6.3% from $863 million in Q4 2011
#17. Singulair (montelukast)
Drug maker: Merck & Co.
Indication(s): Chronic asthma in patients aged 12 months and older; acute prevention of exercise-induced bronchoconstriction in patients aged 6 years and older; allergic rhinitis; seasonal allergic rhinitis in patients aged 2 years and older; and perennial allergic rhinitis in patients 6 months of age and older
2012 sales: $3.853 billion
2011 sales: $5.479 billion
% Change: -29.7%
Q4 2012 sales: $480 million, down 67.1% from $1.461 billion in Q4 2011
#16. Nexium (esomeprazole)
Drug maker: AstraZeneca
Indication(s): Four- to eight-week treatment of erosive esophagitis; maintenance of healing of erosive esophagitis; Four- to eight-week treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD; NSAID-associated gastric ulcers in at-risk patients, such as adults over age 60, or with a medical history of such ulcers
2012 sales: $3.944 billion
2011 sales: $4.429 billion
% Change: -10% at CER
Q4 2012 sales: $1.047 billion, down 1% at CER from $1.067 billion
#15. Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium)
Drug maker: Pfizer
Indication(s): LDL cholesterol and triglyceride reduction in blood as adjunct therapy to diet; reduction of risks for chest pain, stroke, heart attack, or heart and blood vessel problems in people who have certain risk factors
2012 sales: $3.948 billion
2011 sales: $9.577 billion
% Change: -58.8%
Q4 2012 sales: $584 million, down 70.8% from $1.999 billion in 2011
#14. Januvia (sitagliptin)
Drug maker: Merck & Co.
Indication(s): Once-daily type 2 diabetes treatment
2012 sales: $4.086 billion
2011 sales: $3.324 billion
% Change: 22.9%
Q4 2012 sales: $1.134 billion, up 18.1% from $960 million in Q4 2011
#13. Lyrica (pregabalin)
Drug maker: Pfizer
Indication(s): Fibromyalgia, diabetic nerve pain, spinal cord injury nerve pain, and pain after shingles
2012 sales: $4.158 billion
2011 sales: $3.693 billion
% change: 12.6%
Q4 2012 sales: $1.132 billion, up 13.4% from $998 million in Q4 2011
#12. Neulasta (pegfilgrastim)
Drug maker: Amgen1
Indication(s): Neutropenia caused by cancer chemotherapy
2012 sales: $4.092 billion
2011 sales: $3.952 billion
% Change: 3.5%
Q4 2012 sales: $994 million, down 0.4% from $998 million in Q4 2012
#11. Plavix (clopidogrel)
Drug maker: Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb
Indication(s): Acute coronary syndrome, recent myocardial infarction, recent stroke, or established peripheral arterial disease
2012 sales: $5.318 billion—$2.771 billion (Sanofi; €2.066 billion) + $2.547 billion (BMS)2
2011 sales: $9.823 billion—$2.736 billion (Sanofi; €2.040 billion) + $7.087 billion (BMS)2
% change: -45.9%
Q4 2012 sales: $723.1 million—$674.1 million (Sanofi; €503 million) + $49 million (BMS) in Q4 2012. Down 69.6% from $2.381 billion—$708.5 million (Sanofi; €529 million) plus $1.672 billion (BMS) in Q4 20112
Notes:
1 Also sold by Roche under the brand Neulastim. Roche did not disclose sales figures on Neulastim for 2012 or 2011.
2 Global sales are the sum of sales recorded by Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). Sanofi sales figures converted to USD via XE (www.xe.com) on February 11, 2013.
3 Sales figures converted to USD via XE (www.xe.com) on February 11, 2013. Q4 figures not reported for each drug by Roche, but derived by subtracting January-September sales, which are reported by the company in its third-quarter results, from full-year sales. As a result, year-over-year comparisons for Q4 sales are as reported, not at CER.
4 Sales figures converted to USD via XE (www.xe.com) on February 11, 2013. Q4 figures not reported for each drug by Roche, but calculated by subtracting January-September sales, which are reported by the company in its third-quarter results, from full-year sales. As a result, year-over-year comparisons for Q4 sales are as reported, not at CER.
5 Sales figures converted to USD via www.xe.com on Februrary 11, 2013.
6 Sales figures converted to USD via XE (www.xe.com) on February 11, 2013. Q4 figures not reported for each drug by Roche, but derived by subtracting January-September sales, which are reported by the company in its third-quarter results, from full-year sales.
7 Sales figures converted to USD via XE (www.xe.com) on February 11, 2013.
8 Pfizer does not furnish individual sales figures for Enbrel in the U.S. or Canada, but combines them in a category called “Alliance revenues” which also includes sales of Aricept, Exforge, Rebif, and Spiriva.
9 Company spun out January 2, 2013, from Abbott Laboratories, whose portfolio included Humira during 2011 and 2012.