Patent expiries bite into AstraZeneca revenues
pharmafile | October 29, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | AstraZeneca, Crestor, Q3, Seroquel
Generic competition and a major drop off in pandemic influenza products saw AstraZeneca’s revenue fall for the third quarter.
Revenue dropped by 2% to $7.9 billion, with sales propped up by strong growth from anti-cholesterol drug Crestor, which grew 20% to $1.37 billion.
However, even Crestor is coming under generic fire early as US-based firm Watson Pharmaceutical has recently filed its own version of the drug with the FDA.
Asthma treatment Symbicort was its second biggest grower, rising 14% in the third quarter to 640 million.
Sales of its atypical antipsychotic Seroquel fell one percent, down to $1.02 billion.
This loss was compounded by a $473 million legal cost surrounding Seroquel after it was claimed the drug caused obesity and diabetes in a number of patients.
The biggest losses came from drugs facing new generic competition, including asthma inhaler Pulmicort, dropping 44% to $180 million, and oncology drugs Arimidex for breast cancer and prostate cancer drug Casodex, falling by 40% and 21% respectively.
Its non-seasonal influenza products for H1N1 dropped to zero, as expected, as the pandemic of 2009 was not replicated this year.
US sales declined 13% due to patent expiries and a drop in Seroquel revenue; this was partially offset by a strong showing in emerging markets that grew by 14 per cent.
AstraZeneca’s chief executive David Brennan said: “We remain firmly on track to achieve our full year financial targets. The third quarter performance featured double-digit revenue growth in emerging markets.
“Revenue also increased in Western Europe and established rest of world. As expected, the impact of generic competition on several products and the absence of pandemic flu vaccine revenue led to a challenging quarter in the US.”
Ben Adams
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