A comparability of two most cancers medicine, Opdivo and Keytruda, reveals that being the first-to-market will not be essentially the primary think about a drug’s success.
For the primary 4 years since their approval, the anticancer drug Opdivo outperformed Keytruda in gross sales. However this development reversed in 2018, with Keytruda’s gross sales changing into greater than Opdivo’s. Just lately, a analysis group from Ritsumeikan College in Japan evaluated the variations within the life cycle administration methods of the 2 medicine to establish the contributing components to the shift in Keytruda’s success.
The article has been printed in Drug Discovery Today.
The life cycle of a drug begins with drug discovery and improvement, which incorporates lab experiments and medical trials. That is adopted by approval by numerous governmental businesses that vouch for its security and efficacy, advertising and marketing and gross sales, and eventually post-sales analysis to make sure the continued security of the drug. Usually, medicine which are the primary to market achieve an enormous benefit when it comes to gross sales. That is true for medicine with the very best efficacy and least negative effects as effectively.
Swap in 2018
Opdivo and Keytruda are two immune checkpoint inhibitors, medicine that represent a brand new method to immunotherapy for the therapy of most cancers. The 2 have roughly the identical efficacy and security, however Opdivo acquired approval a couple of months earlier than Keytruda. Opdivo, particularly, is the primary immune checkpoint inhibitor to hit the market.
From 2014 to 2018, Opdivo outsold Keytruda. However this modified in 2018, when Keytruda took the lead.
“The gross sales of Keytruda are roughly doubly these of Opdivo. Although Opdivo has received in science (by being first to market), Keytruda remains to be profitable in enterprise (solely in gross sales, not income),” stated Kota Kodama from Ritsumeikan College.
The analysis group examined the life cycle administration methods for the 2 medicine, by specializing in product gross sales, interorganizational offers, and authorized indications. They discovered that product gross sales are carefully linked to the variety of authorized indications, i.e., ailments for which the drug can be utilized as a therapy. Additionally they discovered that Keytruda had a considerably greater variety of efficient inter-organizational alliances, i.e., inter-organizational offers that had a direct affect on the event of the drug. For each medicine, these alliances had been primarily with biotech firms and startups.
Additionally, each medicine had extra inter-organizational alliances for mixture remedy—for instance, using two immunotherapy medicine collectively, or using an immunotherapy drug together with chemotherapy medicine, a normal method within the therapy of most cancers—than for every other function.
Throughout improvement, Keytruda was primarily mixed with medicine in section 1 or section 2 of medical trials, whereas Opdivo was mixed with a wider vary of medication.
Extra authorized indications
“Per our understanding, the exceptional progress in product gross sales for Keytruda could be attributed to their R&D technique. The technique centered on trial collaboration primarily based on the mechanism of motion of the drug—which may be very totally different for immune checkpoint modulators than for different medicine—and led to energetic inter-organizational collaboration for the event of immune checkpoint inhibitors,” Kodama stated.
Keytruda additionally has extra authorized indications to be used together with chemotherapy than Opdivo.
One other key distinction between the 2 medicine is of their licensing. Keytruda is licensed to a single firm, Merck, whereas Opdivo is licensed by two firms, Ono Prescription drugs and Bristol Myers Squibb. Having just one licensee might make it simpler for Keytruda to generate revenue, nonetheless the info on that is restricted, thereby making it troublesome to attract agency conclusions.
Total, the findings spotlight the hyperlink between elevated trial collaboration for the event of mixture remedy, elevated approval indications, and better gross sales.
“The information of pure science is essential within the improvement of prescription drugs, however the information of social science, equivalent to enterprise methods for all times cycle administration, is essential to success as effectively. Japan lags behind within the information of the latter. By our analysis, we want to create a type of atmosphere the place Japanese firms may thrive in enterprise,” Kodama stated.
The researchers stated the findings may also help biotech and pharmaceutical firms make sure the lasting success of their merchandise, permitting the reinvestment in R&D, and thereby making a win–win scenario for sufferers and medical firms alike.
