Blockbuster (pharmacy)
A blockbuster is a drug that is particularly successful on the pharmaceutical market and generates annual sales of more than one billion US dollars.
Company strategy
Blockbusters are developed as part of a company strategy : Since the costs of pharmaceutical research to discover a new active ingredient and its approval are around 800 million US dollars, one possible strategy is to concentrate on active ingredients that have high market potential . Medicines for common diseases have high market potential . For example, sales of US $ 57 billion were achieved in 2002 in the therapeutic areas of cardiovascular and central nervous system diseases .
The high turnover of a blockbuster is offset by the risk of being financially dependent on the success of the blockbuster. The sales of a drug regularly collapse when the patent expires after 20 years (with an average of eight to ten years of marketing time). For example, Prozac's share of sales in 2000 at Eli Lilly was 24%. When the patent expired in 2001, Prozac sales dropped from $ 2.2 billion to $ 400 million because generic drugs came on the market that contained the same active ingredient but were cheaper. It can also happen that a drug has to be withdrawn from the market, as in the case of Lipobay .
Market overview
The following table shows the ten drugs with the highest sales in 2010:
| Trade name | company | Active ingredient | Sales in 2010 (billion US dollars) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lipitor / Sortis | Pfizer | Atorvastatin | 11.8 |
| Plavix / Iscover | Bristol-Myers Squibb / Sanofi-Aventis | Clopidogrel | 8.9 |
| Seretide / Advair | GlaxoSmithKline | Salmeterol / fluticasone | 7.9 |
| Remicade | Centocor | Infliximab | 7.8 |
| Enbrel | Amgen | Etanercept | 7.2 |
| Abilify | Ōtsuka Pharmaceutical Co. | Aripiprazole | 6.6 |
| Humira | Abbott Laboratories | Adalimumab | 6.5 |
| Mabthera / Rituxan | Roche | Rituximab | 6.3 |
| Avastin | Roche | Bevacizumab | 6.2 |
| Diovan | Novartis | Valsartan | 6.1 |
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ European Commission: Pharmaceutical Sector Inquiry. (PDF; 2.0 MB) p. 17.
- ↑ JA DiMasi et al: Journal of Health Economics 22 (2003) pp 151-185
- ^ T. Calkins: Eli Lilly: Xigris. Kellogg School of Management, Chicago, 2004
- ↑ Novumed Life Science Consulting GmbH: Leading Five Pharma Companies Generated 42% of Total Blockbuster Sales in 2010 - Hypertension, Hypercholesterolemia and Diabetes were the Top Three Indications