Some six and a half years since its debut, Servier’s U.S. arm has made good on its oncology growth ambitions while managing to stay true to its patient-centric ethos along the way.
Thanks to last year’s approval of IDH1/2 dual inhibitor Voranigo—which marked the first major treatment advance in low-grade brain cancer in more than two decades—Servier capped off 2024 approaching $1 billion in revenue with an arsenal of five commercial launch products and some 500 employees.
That’s a far cry from the position the cancer specialist was in when it launched in 2018, the privately held company’s CEO, David Lee, said in an interview on the sidelines of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference this month.
At the outset, Servier Pharmaceuticals U.S.—established by French drugmaker Servier to establish a beachhead in the States—had around 50 staffers and just one commercial asset in Oncaspar, which it picked up through its French parent’s $2.4 billion acquisition of Shire’s oncology business.
Lee, who previously led Shire’s global genetic diseases and oncology franchises, was quickly tapped to assume the helm at the newly formed U.S. company, while Shire itself was acquired by Japanese pharma Takeda in 2019.
Shortly after assuming his new role, Lee told Fierce Pharma in 2019 that his goal for the company was clear: Double the size of the group’s cancer business within the next five years and build a unique, patient-focused corporate image through its distinctive governance model under the nonprofit Fondation Internationale de Recherche Servier.
Now, from humble beginnings with a lone marketed drug netting around $100 million annually, Servier’s U.S. branch is looking to generate about $1.4 billion for the 2025 fiscal year, Lee said, calling the sum a “very reasonable target.”
As for Voranigo itself, the drug has done “extremely well” over the roughly six months it’s been on the market, the CEO said. Voranigo is tracking toward revenues of $600 million to $700 million in its launch year, with around 1,800 patients now taking the therapy, Lee explained.
One rollout challenge Servier continues to encounter is determining just how many patients actually have low-grade glioma with the specific mutations Voranigo targets.
“You have a lot of patients that are underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed,” Lee said.
Post-approval, much of that work has come down to marketing and education, particularly among healthcare practitioners.
Lee also highlighted outreach efforts like My Glioma Guide, which aims to promote testing, inform glioma patients about potential mutations and provide awareness that the new treatment Voranigo is now available in the U.S.
Meanwhile, the company is continuing to work through the rollout of Tibsovo—acquired in Servier’s buyout of Agios Pharmaceuticals' oncology assets—in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). The drug, which is an IDH1 inhibitor somewhat akin to Voranigo, is also approved to treat acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and cholangiocarcinoma, a rare cancer that manifests in the bile ducts.
As has been the case from the start, Servier will continue to pursue a healthy mix of internal and external innovation to build out its business, Lee said during the interview, noting that the company is open to an array of business development avenues, from licensures and M&A to co-promotion and co-development.
As for the focus of those deals, Lee noted that Servier is largely sticking to its bread-and-butter areas of cancer expertise, which include hematological malignancies, GI tumors and brain cancer.
“In hem-onc, we’re currently in the acute lymphoblastic leukemia space, AML and the most recent launch in MDS, so in those indications or adjacent to those indications would be even better for us,” Lee said of the sort of external science Servier is pursuing.
Meanwhile, the brain cancer landscape is “pretty open,” according to Lee. Given Voranigo’s unique niche in grade 2 IDH-mutant glioma, “anything mutation-driven is still good for us … but we’re open to any [glioblastomas], gliomas or astrocytomas,” he said.
While Servier has largely proven its business thesis in cancer, the company also remains committed to the sort of philosophies and operational flexibility inherent to a company owned by a nonprofit foundation, Lee pointed out.
“That allows us to do things that other companies can’t,” he explained. “We can invest in diseases that other people would not be able to make a business case for.”
As an example, the CEO pointed to Servier’s phase 3 trial of Tibsovo in chondrosarcoma, an exceedingly rare type of bone tumor that’s historically proven “very hard to treat.”
“Most companies would never go into that space,” Lee admitted.
Lee also attributes Servier’s distinctive governance model to the company’s rapid rise in popularity among U.S. patient groups.
Last May, 314 organizations polled by PatientView concluded that Servier had the best reputation among its drugmaker peers, signaling a rapid ascent from 2020, when the company was ranked the 10th most reputable pharma company among patient groups.
Reflecting on how Servier built out its patient-centric persona, Lee highlighted the company’s patient services group, which not only helps with costs and access to drugs but also brings patients into the development process by way of patient advisory councils.
To hear Lee tell it, these patient councils assist the company across all stages of drug development, from insights on how to decrease the burden on clinical trial participants to feedback on marketing campaigns once Servier’s drugs have crossed the regulatory finish line.
For Servier to retain that enviable reputation, Lee stressed that it’s all about “staying authentic.”
“This is how we built the company,” he said. “Let’s continue to do that—continue to have the patient voice [and] make sure people are focused on the mission.”