Seroquel loss hits AstraZeneca
pharmafile | August 2, 2013 | News story | Sales and Marketing | AstraZeneca, Q2, Seroquel, symbicourt
Loss of exclusivity on brands such as the antipsychotic Seroquel IR helped put a $500 million dent in AstraZeneca’s performance for the second quarter of 2013.
As a result, the manufacturer’s Q2 revenue was $6.2 billion, down 6% on the same period in 2012, while pre-tax profit fell 12% year-on-year to $1.9 billion.
Sales of Seroquel XR in the US fell 6% to $185 million, and were down 11% to $154 million outside the country, while revenues from Seroquel IR in the rest of the world were down 27% to $102 million in the quarter, primarily due to a 49% drop-off in Europe.
Seroquel XR was also down in Europe (12%) and emerging markets (14%), while AstraZeneca puts a negative figure of $174 million for the quarter on the effects on its business of US healthcare reform.
Cancer drug Arimidex lost 36% of its sales worldwide year-on-year, down to $175 million in the first half of 2013.
For the company as a whole, European revenue fell 13% in the three months to the end of June, driven largely by the loss of exclusivity for Atacand and Nexium as well as its problems with Seroquel IR.
And although revenue in emerging markets was up 12%, nearly half of this came from a 21% rise in China, a country in which western companies are experiencing well-publicised difficulties at present.
Not all is gloom and doom for AstraZeneca, however, with Symbicort sales in the US rising to $289 million, a leap of 16%, and Brilinta/Brilique also performing well, with sales of the recently-launched drug steadily increasing in all markets.
“We have made real progress in the second quarter against our strategic priorities despite the anticipated impact on revenue of the loss of exclusivity for some brands,” insisted chief executive Pascal Soriot.
The firm has also been active in commercial terms, buying lung disease specialist Pearl Therapeutics in the second quarter and signing a kidney disease treatment deal with private biotech company FibroGen this week.
Last month AstraZeneca signed a series of cancer research deals with medical institutions in Cambridge, the UK location of its purpose-built global HQ from 2016,
Oncology is one of three core therapy areas – the other two are respiratory, inflammation & autoimmunity and cardiovascular & metabolic disease – into which AstraZeneca is going to put its effort and most of its money following the restructure of its global R&D operations.
Adam Hill
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