Triple approval for Novartis in Japan
pharmafile | January 20, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Afinitor, Asia, Exforge, Galvus, Japan, Novartis, hypertension
Japanese regulators have approved three new Novartis medicines for use patients with type II diabetes, high blood pressure and advanced kidney cancer.
Passing Equa (vildagliptin), Exforge (amlodipine) and Afinitor (everolimus) will provide new treatment options for previously unmet medical needs in Japan, the company said.
These three approvals follow the six product launches in 2009 in Japan for Novartis, the company’s second-largest pharma market.
“It is a significant achievement to secure the approval of three such important new medicines for the benefit of Japanese patients,” said Joe Jimenez, chief executive of the Novartis Pharmaceuticals Division.
“These approvals, which follow six launches last year, mean we continue to quickly introduce innovative medicines to treat serious and life-threatening diseases affecting millions of Japanese patients and their families.”
Equa, marketed as Galvus in Europe, has been approved in Japan for the treatment of type II diabetes, as monotherapy or in combination with a sulfonylurea.
An estimated 7 million people in Japan have type II diabetes and approximately 70% of patients are still not meeting their HbA1c goals on their current medications.
Exforge has been approved in Japan as a single-pill combination of two treatments for high blood pressure: Diovan (valsartan), the number one selling hypertension medication worldwide, and amlodipine, the world’s most prescribed calcium channel blocker.
High blood pressure affects an estimated 40 million people in Japan: nearly a third of the population and around 70% of those don’t reach their blood pressure treatment goal
Afinitor in tablet form has been approved in Japan for the treatment of patients with non-resectable, metastatic renal cell carcinoma (advanced kidney cancer).
Each year, more than 10,000 people in Japan are diagnosed with kidney cancer.
The Japanese pharmaceutical market is the second largest individual market and with sales of nearly $60 billion, constitutes approximately 11% of the world pharma market.
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