[wordup] World's 10 Best-Selling Drugs

[Adam Shand]

Nice ...

> "It's a pill that blocks the 'happy receptor,' " says Prediman K.  
> Shah of Cedars Sinai Medical Center. "The main reason for concern  
> is that it might have an adverse impact on depression or suicide."  
> He is nonetheless very excited about the pill.

Adam.

From: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70508-0.html

World's 10 Best-Selling Drugs 
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By Matthew Herper and Peter Kang, Forbes.com 02:00 AM Mar, 28, 2006

For the first time ever, global spending on prescription drugs has  
topped $600 billion, even as growth slowed in Europe and North America.

Sales of prescription medicines worldwide rose 7 percent to $602  
billion, according to IMS health, a pharmaceutical information and  
consulting company. The United States still accounts for the lion's  
share of that, with $252 billion in annual sales, but sales in it and  
the other nine biggest markets grew by only 5.7 percent. But emerging  
markets such as China, Russia, South Korea and Mexico outpaced those  
markets, growing a whopping 81 percent.
"While these markets are a small part of the total marketplace,  
that's where the growth is expected to come from," says Murray  
Aitken, senior vice president of corporate strategy at IMS.
Pfizer's cholesterol pill Lipitor remains the best-selling drug in  
the world for the fifth year in a row. Its annual sales were $12.9  
billion, more than twice as much as its closest competitors: Plavix,  
the blood thinner from Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis;  
Nexium, the heartburn pill from AstraZeneca; and Advair, the asthma  
inhaler from GlaxoSmithKline.

One thing that's visibly lacking from the list of international  
bestsellers is a biotech drug. In the United States, three anemia  
treatments, two from Amgen and one from Johnson & Johnson, have  
cracked the top 10. But the biotech revolution brought by drugs made  
of protein that must be injected hasn't had quite the same impact  
worldwide, although the category still grew 17 percent to $53  
billion. Most of the drugs on the list are small molecules, the same  
kind of chemicals, resembling German dyes, that kick-started the drug  
business into existence at the turn of the last century.

But right now, big drug companies are suffering from an innovation  
drought. Aitken says only 30 new medicines were launched in key  
markets in 2005, well off the peak of the 1990s. A more encouraging  
sign: There are 2,300 experimental drugs being tested in humans. In  
the late stages of human testing, IMS counts 96 cancer drugs, 51  
heart treatments, 37 antivirals and 28 potential medicines for  
arthritis or pain. However, more and more drugs are being developed  
by biotech, though Aitken argues that this is less of a problem than  
people think.

"Let's not rewrite history in terms of where the innovations of 10  
years ago came from," Aitken says. Many of them, he notes, came from  
Japanese companies, like cholesterol pill Pravachol, or academia,  
like the cancer drug Taxol. Both of those became huge sellers for  
Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Another difficulty for big pharma: There are lots of $1 billion drugs  
but few mega-blockbusters. The second-biggest drug generates half as  
much revenue as Lipitor, and the tenth top-selling drug, Wyeth's anti- 
depressant Effexor, generates a "mere" $3.8 billion. That means even  
if new medicines are successful, they may not fill the holes created  
as drugs go generic.

That's one reason why Bristol and Sanofi were under pressure to reach  
a settlement in their Plavix patent dispute with generic drugmaker  
Apotex, announced late last night.

However, Aitken highlights the potential of several new medicines  
launched in the past year, including diabetes treatment Byetta, co- 
marketed by Eli Lilly and Amylin Pharmaceuticals, and Lunesta, an  
insomnia drug made by Sepracor. And there are more on the way that he  
says are worth watching. The two key drug launches this year are of  
Sutent, Pfizer's first big entry into cancer drugs, and Acomplia, the  
anti-obesity pill being developed by Sanofi-Aventis.

Sutent is already on the market, although sales data are not yet  
available. Acomplia has been delayed at the U.S. Food and Drug  
Administration and rejected as a stop-smoking drug. Some  
cardiologists, who are excited about the drug because of its  
potential to reduce the risk of heart disease, are also worried about  
side effects.

Acomplia works by blocking the same brain receptor that makes pot  
smokers hungry; psychiatric symptoms like anxiety are one of the most  
common reasons patients stopped taking Acomplia in clinical trials.  
"It's a pill that blocks the 'happy receptor,' " says Prediman K.  
Shah of Cedars Sinai Medical Center. "The main reason for concern is  
that it might have an adverse impact on depression or suicide." He is  
nonetheless very excited about the pill.

Click here for a slide show of the top 10 best-selling drugs.