The outpatient prescription of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors in the first half of 2021 in Korea increased 12 percent from the same period of last year to reach 64.3 billion won ($55.9 million).
According to the outpatient prescription report of UBIST, the gap between AstraZeneca’s Forxiga (ingredient: dapagliflozin) and Boehringer Ingelheim’s Jardiance (ingredient: empagliflozin) narrowed while the latecomers Astellas Pharma’s Suglat (ingredient: ipragliflozin) and MSD’s Steglatro (ingredient:ertugliflozin) are struggling to expand their market share.
In the first half-year, AstraZeneca occupied 52.5 percent SGLT-2 inhibitor market share, followed by Boehringer Ingelheim’s 43.6 percent, aided by rapidly growing Jardiance duo tablet.
AstraZeneca's SGLT-2 inhibitors Forxiga carved out the biggest market share of 28.4 percent by recording 18.3 billion won in sales, up 3.98 percent from 17.6 billion won a year ago.
Forxiga won an additional indication as a treatment for chronic heart failure in December. In January, the medicine also began to receive insurance benefits from the Korean government.
According to market watchers, with the expanded indication and reimbursement, Forxiga might be the dominating SGLT-2 inhibitor in the domestic market and overwhelm sales in the future.
The sales gap between the prescriptions of combined drugs of SGLT-2 inhibitors and metformin has also narrowed.
Xigduo, which accounts for 24 percent of the SGLT-2 market, recorded 15.5 billion won sales in prescriptions, up nearly 15.6 percent from the 13.4 billion won made a year earlier.
Although Xigduo prescription continued to increase, AstraZeneca’s Jardiance Duo showed significant growth of 50 percent, exceeding 10 billion won in the first half. Jardiance Duo was prescribed to patients worth 6.8 billion won in the first half of 2020.
Boehringer Ingelheim’s Jardiance ranked second in the market, following AstraZeneca's Forxiga.
Jardiance achieved 18 billion won sales in the first half of the year, accounting for 27.9 percent of the total SGLT-2 inhibitor prescriptions, and showed a slightly lower figure than Forxiga's 28.4 percent.
Jardiance Duo, a combination of empagliflozin and metformin hydrochloride, recorded 10.2 billion won sales with a market share of 15.8 percent, up 49 percent from 6.8 billion won.
However, the prescription of Astellas Pharma’s Suglat, which Handok is marketing in Korea, dropped 5 percent, from 1.63 billion won to 1.55 billion won, over the period.
MSD's Steglatro prescription marked the lowest level, decreasing to 8.73 billion won from 1.13 billion won during the period.