Schering-Plough’s Cholesterol Franchise Holds 16.4 Percent Of New Scripts
This article was originally published in The Pink Sheet Daily
Executive Summary
Sales of Vytorin and Zetia climb 48 percent to $1.2 billion during the first quarter.
|
Schering-Plough's cholesterol franchise holds 16.4 percent of new prescription share, Global Pharmaceuticals President Carrie Cox reported during the company's first-quarter earnings call April 19. Global sales from Schering's joint venture with Merck for the lipid lowering therapies Vytorin (ezetimibe/simvastatin) and Zetia (ezetimibe) grew 48 percent to $1.2 billion for the quarter ending March 31. "We continue to grow by Vytorin and Zetia despite the new wave of generics that has recently entered the market," Schering Chief Executive Officer Fred Hassan said April 19. Hassan had predicted last year that Vytorin would continue to grow despite generic competition of Merck's Zocor , which lost patent protection in June 2006 (1 (Also see "Schering Foresees Continued Growth For Vytorin Despite Generic Zocor" - Pink Sheet, 24 Jul, 2006.)). During the call, Cox noted the script performance of Vytorin in first-line use, switches and among specialists. She reported that first-line new patient starts represent more than half of all Vytorin scripts and that the therapy remains the branded leader among switched patients. Cox also said that among cardiologists, the combined new script share of Vytorin and Zetia is nearing 23 percent. Schering has also recently announced plans to expand its cholesterol franchise. In March, the firm and Merck announced they would develop a combination of Zetia and Pfizer's Lipitor (atorvastatin) for launch after Lipitor's patent expires, anticipated in 2011. Schering has maintained the new combination will not be a replacement for Vytorin (2 (Also see "Schering-Plough And Merck Plan Zetia/Lipitor Combination Following Patent Expiry" - Pink Sheet, 26 Mar, 2007.)). In an April 19 interview with "The Pink Sheet" DAILY, Hassan indicated that the new combination would serve patients who need greater LDL cholesterol lowering. "If you can combine Zetia with a higher efficacy statin, which happens to be simvastatin, then you keep expanding the high efficacy space, which is where the science is going." Schering delivered net sales of $3 billion for the quarter, up 17 percent from the year-ago period. Hassan attributed the growth to the strong performance of the cholesterol franchise, as well as that of Remicade (infliximab) and Nasonex (mometasone furoate monohydrate). Sales of Remicade, which Schering markets outside the U.S. for Centocor, increased 34 percent to $373 million and sales of Nasonex rose 24 percent to $284 million. - Kathryn Phelps ([email protected]) |