Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Big Pharma's blockbusters - Englands "top 5"

In England, the top-selling product was once again Pfizer's cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor. Sales grew nearly 4 million pounds (around 11%) compared to the previous year, despite a seven per cent price cut enforced on the industry at the start of 2005.

The country's GPs prescribed nearly 40 million pounds worth of Lipitor in 2005, making it easily the biggest-selling branded medicine, a position mirrored in global revenues, which rose 12% to $12.2 billion.

Newly released statistics from the Department of Health show the total number of prescriptions written in the community in England grew 5% last year, while prescription costs fell 2% overall, thanks to cost savings from cheaper generic and branded drugs.

The NHS made most of these savings in cardiovascular prescribing, with spending falling nearly 13%. Across other areas of prescribing, growth was strongest in products for the endocrine system (dominated by diabetes treatments), with brands such as GSK's Avandia growing strongly over the year.

The country's top five biggest-selling drugs remained the same as in 2004, although GSK's asthma and COPD treatment Seretide climbed to number two to displace Wyeth's ulcer pill Zoton.

Sanofi-Aventis' Plavix overtook Lilly's Zyprexa to gain fourth spot in the table.

Safety concerns relating to diabetes and weight gain seem to have hit Lilly's antipsychotic treatment, but its decline in sales was less severe.

Source: Pharmafocus.com

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