Takeda drugs acquired by Celltrion shows sluggish sales in 1H

The prescription of chronic disease drugs Celltrion acquired from Takeda Pharmaceuticals decreased in the first half of this year from a year ago.

According to UBIST, a drug market research firm, the total prescription amount of drugs Celltrion took over from Takeda Pharmaceutical stood at 33.4 billion won ($29.1 million) in the first half of last year, down 9 percent from 36.8 billion won in the same period of last year.

Celltrion acquired the business rights for 18 brands of Takeda Pharmaceutical in the Asia-Pacific region for 332 billion won in June last year.

Under the accord, Celltrion secured business rights related to the products ranging from patents to trademarks and sales rights in nine markets, including Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia. Acquired products include Nesina and Actos (diabetes treatments), Edarbi (hypertension treatment), Whituben (cold medicine), and Albothyl (stomatitis treatment).

The UBIST data showed that the prescriptions of all these drugs declined in the past year.

For example, Actos lineup, including Actos, Actos met, and ActosRyl, dropped 8 percent, from 12.3 billion won to 11.4 billion won, over the cited period, in prescriptions.

Also, the prescriptions of the Nesina lineup, including Nesina, Nesina Act, and Nesina Met, fell 9 percent, from 16.2 billion won to 14.7 billion won. Those of Edarbi and Edarbyclor slid 7 percent from 5.1 billion won to 4.8 billion won, and Madipine and Basen plunged 20 percent from 2.1 billion won to 1.7 billion won, and 16 percent, from 1 billion won to 800 million won.

However, industry experts stressed that the decrease in sales is not alarming as prescriptions of these drugs had turned downward in the domestic market.

Most of the products have been on the market for a long time. Madipine and Basen have been around for nearly 30 years since receiving approval in 1991 and 1995, respectively. Actos also reached its 20th anniversary this year after its approval in 2001.

As such, competition for these products is fierce, with new products with improved efficacy and safety released one after another while generics appeared due to patent expiration.

Market watchers also noted that the local prescription market contracted due to the prolonged Covid-19 crisis.

The first-half sales data for the over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, such as Whituben and Albothyl, in Celltrion’s acquisition list, have not been released yet. However, considering that the OTC drug market contracted more than the prescription drug market due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the decrease in total prescription amount for these OTC drugs will be larger than that of ethical drugs, they said.

Celltrion confirmed such a decrease in the total prescription amount for the OTC drugs in the first quarter of this year.

The first-quarter sales of Whituben and Albothyl decreased 51 and 49 percent from a year earlier.