THREE OF Europe’s biggest drugmakers – AstraZeneca, Novartis and Sanofi – reported product setbacks yesterday, underlining the difficulties of developing new medicines to make up for those going off patent.
However, rival Bayer said four of its drugs in development may become blockbusters, ultimately contributing €5 billion to annual revenue.
Blood-thinner Xarelto has the brightest prospects, with peak sales probably exceeding €2 billion a year, Leverkusen, Germany-based Bayer said in a statement yesterday. Bayer’s eye drug VEGF Trap-Eye and cancer medicines Alpharadin and regorafenib have billion-euro potential, the drugmaker said.
Bayer will allot two-thirds of next year’s €3 billion research and development budget to developing more new drugs. Bayer’s top-selling multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment, Betaseron, faces competition and its contraceptives Yaz and Yasmin face safety-related lawsuits in the US.
“Our pipeline is now beginning to bear fruit,” said chief executive Marijn Dekkers.
AstraZeneca was hit hardest by a double blow to treatments for cancer and depression, which triggered $381.5 million (€291.8 million) in charges and will push 2011 profits to the lower end of its forecast range.
Novartis, meanwhile, faces plunging sales of blood pressure pill Rasilez after patients taking it did worse in a clinical trial.
Sanofi’s hopes of competing in the new market for oral multiple sclerosis drugs were dented by failure in a head-to-head study.
While AstraZeneca’s and Sanofi’s experimental medicines were known to be risky projects, the setback for Rasilez caught analysts by surprise.
Kepler’s Martin Voegtli said the fact there were more adverse events when the Novartis drug was added to standard blood pressure pills was a “major setback” and was likely to lead to the drug being pulled from the market. This would result in wiping out an estimated $1.7 billion (€1.3 billion) in peak annual sales.
Still, Swiss-based Novartis has other successful new medicines in its portfolio – including the first MS pill, Gilenya.
French drugmaker Sanofi is looking in a weaker position in the competitive MS drug market after its experimental Aubagio pill failed to show it was better than Rebif, a commonly used injectable treatment from Germany’s Merck. – Reuters
