Blockbuster Drugs 2010: small molecules still dominating, but biologics strongly emerging

100 blockbuster drugs with combined sales of US$ 249 bln; 61% small molecule blockbusters with US$ 150 bln compared with US$ 85 bln for 31 biologic blockbusters

SITGES, Spain | November 23, 2011 | The Business Intelligence firm La Merie S.L. released its new compilation of Blockbuster Drugs 2010. The search identified 100 blockbuster drugs with sales of more than US$ 1 bln in 2010. Total sales of all blockbuster drugs in 2010 were US$ 249 bln. Twelve of them were Mega-Blockbusters with 2010 sales of more than US$ 5 bln, half of them antibodies and the other half were small molecules. Combined 2010 sales of the TOP 10 small molecule blockbusters were slightly higher than those of antibodies & proteins: US$ 63.7 bln versus US$ 55 bln. There were 5 blockbuster peptide drugs totalling 2010 sales of US$ 9 bln and only 3 vaccine blockbuster drugs with combined sales of US$ 5 bln. Of the 100 blockbuster drugs, 61% were small molecules, 10% recombinant antibodies and 21% therapeutic proteins. The therapeutic areas with the highest combined blockbuster drug sales were cardiovascular (US$ 51 bln), followed by oncology (US$ 46 bln) and neurology & psychiatry (US$ 40 bln).

These results and more were found in an elaboration prepared by La Merie Business Intelligence and published in a complimentary report on November 14, 2011. The pdf document entitled “Blockbuster Drugs 2010” can be downloaded for free at La Merie’s News Center and Online Store www.pipelinereview.com.

The report has been published as a special issue of R&D Pipeline News on November 14, 2011 and has 24 pages. The reports lists the 100 blockbuster drugs with information on Drug name; Target; Class of compound; Company; Product Category; and Source of information with hyperlink and sales figures. The report summarizes the TOP 10 best selling blockbuster drugs in 2010 separately for small molecules, antibodies & proteins, peptides and vaccines. In addition, sales of blockbuster drugs were analyzed by therapeutic area and within each therapeutic area split per product category, i.e. small molecules, antibodies, proteins, peptides and vaccines.

About La Merie

La Merie S.L. is a Business Intelligence enterprise dedicated to provide high quality R&D information to the biopharmaceutical industry. La Merie offers individual consultancy services and publishes reports and periodicals. For more information visit www.lamerie.com.