Drug Topics - March 10, 2008 - (Page 48) 48 DRUG TOPICS MARCH 10, 2008 www.drugtopics.com Special Report Pharmaceutical market in 2007: Virtual replay of 2006 Fred Gebhart enerics were the big winners in the prescription drug world last year. That was how Drug Topics described the prescription drug market in 2006. Little changed in 2007 except the numbers themselves. Total Rx volume grew 4.5% to 3.5 billion scripts last year. That growth depended entirely on an 11.7% surge in generic Rx scripts over 2006 as brand-name Rx volume fell by 5%. It was a virtual replay of 2006, when generic Rx volume grew 11.4% and branded Rx volume fell by 5.1%. Generics now account for 61% of all scripts dispensed, up from 57% in 2006. Why did generics continue to do so well? Credit the same factors that influenced sales in 2006: A continuing stream of blockbuster drugs going off patent and a dwindling stream of new drug approvals. Preliminary data from the Food & Drug Administration show only 18 new molecular entities approved in 2007, the same number as were approved in 2006. “There was absolutely nothing major that stood out for the industry in 2007,” said Tim McGee, product manager for Vector One National (VONA), Rx/Dx Solutions at Verispan. The Newton, Pa., market research firm provided all of the data for this report unless otherwise noted. “Last year was pretty much status quo for the prescription drug industry. We saw a lot of generic ero- G sion and no launches of potential blockbuster drugs. We saw a lot of focus on specialty products that treat a very small population instead of the huge products of the past. There has been a big decline in R&D (research and development) and in getting new products out to market.” Fading blockbuster boost With no new blockbusters on the market in 2007, there was relatively little change in prescription volume among the top 20 drug classes. But there were some major changes among the top 20 brand-name products. Rx volume for Lipitor (atorvastatin, Pfizer) fell 11.5% and Toprol XL (metoprolol, AstraZeneca) scripts were off by 43.3%. Generic introductions grabbed market share in both cases, McGee said. There were also some healthy gains, including a 37.5% increase in Rx activity for Plavix (clopidogrel, Sanofi-Aventis/Bristol-Myers Squibb) and a 23% jump for Vytorin (ezetimibe/simvastatin, Merck/ScheringPlough). Vytorin was still benefiting from its status as a relatively new introduction, McGee said. That new-drug advantage is likely to fade in 2008 following the ENHANCE study, which found that Vytorin was no better than simvastatin alone in combating plaque in carotid arteries. Plavix got a legal boost when its makers beat back a generic introduction by Apotex in 2006. “There was a slow decline in Plavix while the generic that was already in the supply chain was exhausted,” McGee said. “Once the generic was out, Plavix was back on the shelf by itself and getting all the share.” With so few hot products on the market, it’s no surprise that both Rx volume and Rx value showed modest gains. New Rx volume increased 3.7% last year while refills were up 5.3%, for a total growth in Rx volume of 4.5%. The relative drought of new brand-name products affected Rx sales dollars as well. Total Rx retail sales grew 5.3% in 2007 to $202 trillion, with new Rx dollars up by 4.7% and refill Rx dollars up by 5.8%. The gap between Rx volume and Rx dollars was even more profound in markets being taken over by generics. The number of scripts filled for cholesterol medications grew by 11.2% in 2007, but the dollar value of those scripts fell by 9.2%. Rx market overview—2007 % change from 2006 Average value per Rx— Drugstore acquisition cost Average retail price per Rx Total Rxs in retail dollars Total Rxs dispensed at retail Refill Rxs dispensed New Rxs dispensed Total: Refill: New: Source: Verispan $85.71 $58.49 $202,249,087,157 3,457,595,834 1,722,308,966 1,735,286,868 62,232 30,999 31,233 +8.3% +0.8 +5.3 +4.5 +5.3 +3.7 +3.3% +4.1 +2.6 Rxs dispensed per average drugstore http://www.drugtopics.com
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