Earnings
AstraZeneca logs growth in Japan despite a big reimbursement price cut for one of its top sellers and expects 40 approvals in the country over the next six years.
The big pharma forecast a $400m expense this year related to tariffs, but those estimates only reflect medtech tariffs already announced, not potential pharma tariffs.
Adstiladrin sales hit €70m in first full year on the market
As drugmakers update investors on first quarter financial performance, uncertainty around global trade and US regulatory oversight is likely to dominate discussions.
Sector-specific tariffs, including on pharmaceuticals, could be announced as early as this week.
Industry lobbied for pharmaceuticals to be exempt from Trump’s sweeping US tariffs and the effort appears to have paid off. J&J, Lilly and Merck & Co. even got shout outs.
Strong sales growth for the German group’s SGLT2 inhibitor in 2024
Pharma executives and investors are waiting with bated breath to find out if President Trump will include drugs in a new round of tariffs to be announced on 2 April.
Supply chain disruption fears at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic caused drug over-ordering. Imminent tariffs on drugs may have had a similar effect on pharma sales in Q1 earnings season.
The promise of innovative therapies seems to have been constrained not by efficacy or safety concerns, but because the high price of treatments is incongruous with the reimbursement of short-course therapies.
Obefazimod has been heralded as a potential blockbuster for ulcerative colitis and there will be great interest in the readout of Phase III induction trials in the third quarter of this year.
The world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies mostly saw growth in 2024 but 2025 promises to be more of a mixed bag with headwinds including losses of exclusivity, Medicare Part D redesign and challenges in the Chinese market.
CSL’s US influenza vaccine sales were a window into wider issues for vaccine manufacturers that had already impacted the fourth-quarter results of Merck, Pfizer and GSK. There could also be a correlation between lower vaccine sales and the measles outbreak in Texas.
Increasingly focused on maximizing and accelerating the progress of its PD-L1 x VEGF inhibitor BNT357, the company expects new partnerships to be announced this year.
J&J’s Stelara, Amgen’s Prolia, Novartis’s Entresto and AstraZeneca’s Brilinta are among the drugs that will likely face generic or biosimilar competition for the first time this year.
The late-stage cupboard is looking bare but the German firm has its eyes on products with peak sales potential of over €500m.
Pharma revenues are going to fall this year as a result of deeper generic competition for the German group’s top-selling drug, Xarelto, but it should return to growth from 2027 onwards.
The vaccine maker also reacted to news of the FDA’s annual flu vaccine meeting being canceled and the postponement of the CDC’s ACIP meeting.
The Belgian firm has posted a healthy set of financials for 2024, buoyed by strong uptake in the US across all indications for Bimzelx.
With $180m in sales during its first nine months on the US market, the first approved MASH drug still tops projections. Madrigal predicts continued growth in 2025, with EU entry expected.