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Top 10 Drugs Q1 2024: Keytruda Reigns, Trikafta Debuts

Humira Clings On As COVID-19 Vaccines Exit Again

 
• By Eleanor Malone

Keytruda enjoyed its fifth consecutive quarter as the world’s top-selling drug in the first three months of 2024. As Comirnaty and Spikevax fell out of the list, Vertex’s cystic fibrosis pill Trikafta/Kaftrio became one of the top 10 best-selling drugs for the first time.

silver and gold pills spilling onto dollar bills
Top 10 Drugs Generate $33bn Sales Globally • Source: Shutterstock

With global sales of $6.9bn in the first quarter of 2024, Merck & Co., Inc.’s anti-PD-1 cancer immunotherapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab) retained its title as the best-selling drug, a position it has held every quarter since the start of 2023.

Although its quarterly total falls a long way short of the highest single-quarter revenues ever reported for a drug, Keytruda was comfortably ahead of its nearest rival Ozempic (semaglutide), Novo Nordisk A/S’s GLP-1 analog for type 2 diabetes, on $4.0bn

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Keytruda’s domination is expected to continue in the near term, whereas rival drug Opdivo looks set to leave the top 10 by the end of 2024.

  • Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 agonist Ozempic will be joined by Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro in the full-year list, with Wegovy appearing in full-year 2025

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