Pharmaceutical giants issued 2016 financial reports, J & J took the lead with USD 70 billion

Apparently, global big pharmaceutical enterprises have been concentrated on issuing 2016 financial reports recently.

( Source: E-Drug Manager E药经理人）

There seems to be no doubt that J & J was the leader in sales in 2016, although some pharmaceutical enterprises have not announced their 2016 performance. According to its 2016 financial report, J & J achieved USD 71.89 billion sales in 2016, which only grew by 2.6% compared to last year, but had exceeded the sum of 2016 sales of AbbVie, AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly in the absolute figure.

The top 3 giants in global sales among transnational pharmaceutical enterprises have been Pfizer, Roche and Novartis for a long time, with only positions among the top 3 differing. However, apparently, this pattern is being broken in recent years, and the kings used to be face much pressure. The sales of J & J which topped this time were nearly USD 20 billion more than that of Pfizer, the second place, showing the strong competitiveness.

The "explosion" of J & J came from the large growth of its prescription drug business which achieved USD 33.46 billion sales in 2016, growing by 6.5% year on year, and accounting for nearly half of the gross operating income. But such growth was mainly reflected in home market. In 2016, the sales growth of J & J reached 9.8% in home market and only reached 1.8% in international market, the latter appearing to be small by comparison.

The rapid charge of new products and steady growth of mature products are crucial to the performance of a pharmaceutical company. And one of the strongest growth engines of J & J in 2016 was IMBRUVICA® (ibrutinib), a once-daily oral drug for specific B-cell lymphoma and also the world’s first BTK inhibitor. In addition, J & J’s classical SGLT2 inhibitor Invokana/Inovkamet for type 2 diabetes also grew steadily.

Sales of consumables and medical equipment of J & J reached billions of U.S. dollars, but the drug industry of the company is the field most likely to promote the development of the company in 2017. Besides ibrutinib, infliximab, rivaroxaban, Darzalex and ustekinumab will also become drugs crucial to J & J’s future growth, wherein:

1. Infliximab

Managerial personnel told investors in Q3 teleconference of J & J that infliximab’s market share was still 90% in other regions where it competed with generic drugs, despite the competition from Pfizer’s generic drug Inflectra;

2. Rivaroxaban

The anticoagulant rivaroxaban still has room to grow despite the sales of up to USD 2 billion every year, of which the growth is mainly due to the decline of market share of warfarin, the most commonly used anticoagulant;

3、Darzalex

Darzalex has become the most commonly used fourth-line prescription drug for treating multiple myeloma 3 months after it was marketed, with the sales expected to reach billions of U.S. dollars every year. J & J has listed the drug as one of the 10 new drugs with potential to reach USD 1 billion sales, however, this relies on the quick expansion of the indication scope of the drug;

J & J filed the application for approving Darzalex in combination with lenalidomide, the most commonly used multiple myeloma drug, to be the second-line therapy for multiple myeloma to FDA in August 2016. If this was approved approved, Darzalex’s sales would explode, as evidenced by the sales target of USD 8 billion of lenalidomide this year. The answer will be given in February this year.

4、Ustekinumab

Ustekinumab was approved to treat Crohn's disease in 2016, therefore, the revenue brought by the drug will continue to increase this year, and its share is expected to grow to 50% in the next decade. As ustekinumab has more significant efficacy compared to other means for treating Crohn's disease, this will increase the sales of the drug by about USD 500 million, as considered by the management.