Sales & Earnings

Sales of Arexvy fell back in the third quarter but GSK’s leadership believes the vaccine and several pipeline drugs can help the company achieve higher growth.

While Roche admits that an acceleration of biosimilar competition to its blockbuster IL-6 inhibitor Actemra/RoActemra is anticipated in the final three months of the year, the Swiss originator has been surprised by the lack of challenge to its franchise so far.

Strides is to supply semaglutide and liraglutide to generics companies amid global capacity constraints and drug shortages, ahead of loss of exclusivity. An ability to make drug-device combinations has meant it has contracts for seven of the eight GLP-1 agonists, and counting.

Pharmaceutical company managers may view biosimilar erosion of their products’ sales in the same rose-tinted light cast by Humira’s delayed biosimilars in the US. Payers, however, may be more clear sighted.

After a “remarkable performance” in Q2, Samsung Bioepis enjoyed a calm, but still profitable, third quarter.

The French major enjoys swift growth from Beyfortus among others, and is unworried by future competition.

Roche’s 2022-launched Vabysmo took no time at all to reach the coveted $1bn in sales, and the originator is continuing to feel optimistic about the newer-generation VEGF brand’s prospects, even as Amgen readies the launch of the first US biosimilar to Eylea.

Findings of Germany’s latest annual survey of medtech opinion and business confidence are a wake-up call for European industry and heap further criticism on the EU MDR.

Keytruda and Ozempic held their positions as the number one and two best-selling drugs in the world in the second quarter, while Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro shot to sixth place.

Biosimilar competition to Xolair, one of the largest monoclonal antibodies coming off patent in the middle of this decade, has been pushed back to an unknown date in the US, as Celltrion awaits news from the US FDA on its biosimilar application.