Bayer pharma sales overcome European decline
pharmafile | February 26, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | 2009 financials, Bayer, Xarelto
Bayer’s group sales dropped 5% to 31 billion euros in a “difficult year” for the company that saw a drop in European pharma sales compounded by the impact of the recession.
But the company’s pharma and consumer health divisions bucked this trend with combined sales that grew by 3.8% to 16 billion euros.
Pharma alone saw sales increase by 4.4% to 10.5 billion euros, with growth in the Asia/Pacific and Latin America/Africa/Middle East regions.
This helped offset a 2% decline in European sales, which were down to 4.1 billion euros, and slow US sales growth of 2.5% that finished the year on 2.7 billion euros.
Group chairman Werner Wenning said: “We were successful in a difficult environment, and we are optimistic for the future.
Pharma sales were led by the Yaz oral contraceptive franchise and multiple sclerosis (MS) drug Betaferon/Betaseron which increased by 4.7% to 1.3 billion euros and 5.7% to 1.2 billion euros respectively.
There was also strong growth in sales of cancer drug Nexavar (sorafenib) – up 28% to 600 million euros, Aspirin Cardio – up 14.9% to 315 million euros, and antihypertensive Kinzal/Pritor (telmisartan) – up 14.5% to 164 million euros.
There was slower growth in Bayer’s consumer health division, which advanced by 2.7% to 5.5 billion euros largely due to significant gains in the emerging markets of Russia and China.
Bayer says it continues to make progress with antithrombotic drug Xarelto (rivaroxaban), which is still waiting for US approval despite having been launched in Europe in October 2008.
In the second half of 2010 Bayer plans to submit data to US regulators to support Xarelto’s delayed license application as a preventative treatment for venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients undergoing hip or knee replacement surgery.
Wenning also said that new and important study data are expected during the course of this year and first filings for stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and for the treatment of deep vein thrombosis are currently targeted for the second half of 2010.
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