AstraZeneca looks to outflank cholesterol competitors
pharmafile | September 14, 2007 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â Â
AstraZeneca is to conduct a head-to-head trial of Crestor against rival treatment Vytorin in the hugely competitive cholesterol treatment market.
The cholesterol-management market is one of largest, with total worldwide sales of $32 billion in 2006, the US accounting for $22 billion of this total.
The runaway market leader is Pfizer's Lipitor, but AstraZeneca and co-marketing partners Schering-Plough and Merck are in a close race for second spot.
The rivals
Launched in 2003, Crestor is already one of AstraZeneca's top products, earning the company $1.3 billion in the first half of 2007, up an impressive 51%.
But the drug lags behind rivals Zetia and Vytorin, the cholesterol franchise co-marketed by Schering-Plough and Merck.
A new kind of cholesterol treatment, Zetia (known as Ezetrol in Europe) has been a success since its launch in 2002 and earned $1.1 billion in the first six months of this year.
Its sister product Vytorin (Inegy in Europe) combines Zetia with simvastatin, the tried-and-trusted statin which is now available generically around the world.
Combined sales of Vytorin and Zetia reached $2.4 billion in the first half of 2007, up 40%, an overall lead AstraZeneca hopes to narrow.
Proving Crestor's power
AstraZeneca's new head-to-head trial looks designed to undermine the 2-in-1 treatment Vytorin proving to doctors that combining Zetia with Crestor will produce better results than Zetia with simvastatin.
Elizabeth Bjork, Global Medical Science Director for Crestor, said: "We expect these results to firmly establish Crestor as the best statin upon which to base any combination therapy for patients with dyslipidaemia."
Significantly, the trials will use a low dose of Crestor (10mg or 20mg) combined with Ezetrol versus simvastatin (40mg or 80mg doses) and Ezetrol.
A similar trial has already been conducted by AstraZeneca, but in this case, using a high dose of Crestor. The study found unprecedented levels of LDL-C reduction of up to 70% compared to 57% with Crestor alone, but some doctors remain wary of high-dose Crestor.
Concerns were raised about side-effects seen in high doses shortly after the drug's launch, but the company says Crestor has now shown its side-effect profile is comparable to other statins.
All companies with cholesterol products are feeling the squeeze from the launch of generic simvastatin in the all-important US market.
Generic simvastatin was launched in the US last year, and caused a major slowdown in market growth. Meanwhile, Pfizer's Lipitor is expected to lose its US patent in 2011, which will bring about a rapid decline in the value of the market.
Schering-Plough and Merck are anticipating this event by beginning work on a new 2-in-1 combination of Ezetrol and Lipitor (atorvastatin), hoping to have the drug ready soon after Lipitor's patent expiry.
