What’s in store for Merck spinout Organon’s second year? Growth ambitions for birth control implant Nexplanon, plus tuned up sales expectations for its biosimilars and fertility businesses.
Altogether, that spread of offerings should help the company generate up to $6.4 billion in 2022 revenues, executives forecasted Thursday on the company’s full-year 2021 earnings call. But even as Organon moves ahead with its first full year of independent operations, execs took a chance on Thursday to talk up next year's big biosimilar launch.
On that front, Organon is bracing for the important launch of its Samsung-partnered Humira biosimilar Hadlima. “Speed to market is critical” on Hadlima, CEO Kevin Ali said on Thursday’s call. Organon should be in good shape, then, as it plans to be second to market in the U.S. with its copycat, following only Amgen, the CEO said.
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Organon plans to telegraph its pricing strategy for the Humira biosimilar “pretty quickly,” Ali said. The CEO expects a competitive market with numerous companies vying for share of the $20 billion-per-year brand.
Organon and Samsung's Hadlima is expected to launch in June 2023, six months after Amgen is expected to roll out its own copycat Amjevita in January, The Center for Biosimilars reports.
As for last year's performance, Organon generated $6.3 billion in full-year sales. The company officially split from Merck in June.
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Aside from biosims, Organon is looking to contraceptives and its fertility business for growth. Nexplanon—its popular contraceptive implant—has “a lot of runway for growth given its relatively small market share in the United States and around the world,” the company’s chief financial officer Matthew Walsh said on Thursday’s call.
It’s important to take a “longer view” to Nexplanon, CEO Ali said, adding that the implant “will be a billion-dollar business” in the future.
Between Nexplanon, fertility and biosimilars, Organon is “not overly dependent on any one of those items,” the CEO added.
Organon’s women’s health sales jumped 6% in the fourth quarter to $415 million. Established brands, meanwhile, were down 2% at about $1.04 billion.