Print version | PDF version | Send article | RSS-Feed

Cancer and TNF antibodies boost Biologics Sales in 2007

01 Apr 2008 - The Business Intelligence firm La Merie S.L. reported that for the first time erythropoietins have been superseded by the major cancer antibodies Rituxan, Herceptin, Avastin and Erbitux as the number one top selling class of biologics with the highest growth rate of 48 % and combined 2007 sales of US$ 15.74 bln.
 
Epoetin alfa brands still are number one drugs with 2007 sales of US$ 5.76bln, but closely followed by (anti-TNF) etanercept with 2007 sales of US$ 5.45 bln and apositive double digit growth rate in contrast to epoetin. The Lucentis antibody fortreatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has become the newestblockbuster biologic with sales higher than US$ 1 bln in 2007.
 
New enzyme replacementproducts explain the 2nd strongest growth by 34.1% of this class of biologic therapies.The continued double digit growth of novel insulin analogs made the class of recombinantinsulins pass the threshold of US$ 10 bln sales in 2007. These results and more were found in an an elaboration prepared by La Merie Business Intelligence and published in a complimentary report on March 27, 2008.