The 3 Fastest Growing Drugs for Pfizer

February 1, 2017
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

Launched in 1997, Pfizer ’s Lipitor has been the world’s bestselling drug. But sales have been dropping since about 2012, due to patent expirations and the resultant generic competition.

Todd Campbell, writing for The Motley Fool, notes that Pfizer appears to have finally managed to reverse this sales loss with three other drugs.

1. Ibrance

Ibrance is a cancer drug that inhibits CDK 4/6. It is currently Pfizer’s fastest-growing drug. In 2016, it racked up $2.1 billion in sales, a massive jump from $723 million the year before. Campbell notes, “That sales increase was due to its launch in new markets outside the U.S. last year and increasing use in this country.

Sales climbed in emerging markets from $4 million in 2015 to $43 million in 2016. And in European sales, they went from $1 million in 2015 to $21 million last year. In the U.S., fourth-quarter sales alone grew 97 percent year over year to $613 million.

In 2016, Ibrance received label expansion in the U.S. In 2015, the FDA approved it for use with letrozole in menopausal women that had ER+ HER2- advanced breast cancer. In February 2016, the FDA expanded it to include its use with fulvestrant in HR+, HER2- advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Fulvestrant is a standard of care hormonal therapy in that patient population.

2. Eliquis

Pfizer developed Eliquis, an anticoagulant, with Bristol-Myers Squibb . It was first approved to cut stroke and blood clotting risk in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation. It has expanded for use in hip or knee replacement patients, and patients with risk of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.

The standard of care for a long time was warfarin. But in clinical trials, Eliquis was better. The two drugs have different mechanisms of action. Warfarin targets vitamin K to prevent blood clots. Eliquis inhibits factor Xa activity. Campbell writes, “Because Eliquis targets a different factor in the coagulation cascade, it doesn’t require the frequent testing and dose adjustments that warfarin does. Eliquis also doesn’t require dietary changes to reduce vitamin K intake, which gives it another leg up on warfarin.”

Pfizer’s global alliance revenue for Eliquis in 2016 was $1.59 billion. That includes 62 percent international growth to $622 million, a global sales increase of 50 percent.

Currently the big competition for Eliquis is Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)’s Xarelto. Eliquis is the leader in the institutional setting—hospitals and among cardiologists. And as of January 2017, Eliquis sales were reportedly closing on Xarelto in the overall market. However, J&J has 10 ongoing clinical trials that it and its marketing partner Bayer hope will expand Xarelto’s indications. As of October 2016, 54 percent of patients were still on warfarin. That is largely because newer drugs, with the exception of Boehringer Ingelheim’s Pradaxa, don’t have an antidote that can stop severe bleeding in case of an emergency.

3. Xeljanz

Pfizer’s drug for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), grew sales by 61 percent year over year to $278 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. That’s good, because its other RA drug, Enbrel, dropped sales because of biosimilar competition.

In the U.S., Xeljanz sales rose from $153 million in the fourth quarter of 2015 to $239 million in last year’s final quarter. International sales rose from $19 million in the fourth quarter 2015 to $40 million in the same quarter 2016.

Campbell notes that Pfizer projects sales to grow without considering those three drugs by about $300 million, and its adjusted earnings per share (EPS) will rise 5.5 percent in 2017. “In order to hit its growth targets, Ibrance, Eliquis, and Xeljanz will need to continue to win over doctors and patients. Fortunately, there’s reason to think that can happen.”