While Roche touted sales and market share increases for eye disease drug Vabysmo on Thursday, there is evidence of a slowdown of its momentum as it battles Regeneron and Bayer’s powerhouse Eylea franchise.
April through June, worldwide sales of Vabysmo reached 947 million Swiss francs ($1.1 billion) as the drug achieved blockbuster status in a quarter for the first time. This brings Vabysmo sales for the first half of the year to 1.8 billion Swiss francs ($2 billion), a 93% increase year over year.
A look at sequential performance of Vabysmo, however, tells a different tale. From the first to the second quarter, sales increased a modest 11% compared to the 54% boom Roche enjoyed between the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of this year.
Could Eylea, with its new high-dose (HD) formula, be regaining some of the momentum it has lost since Vabysmo hit the market in early 2022? It will become clearer when Regeneron reports its second-quarter sales Aug. 1.
“Vabysmo, what can I say—doing fantastically well. There is really strong momentum here,” Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker said during a conference call.
Roche’s pharma chief Teresa Graham added that Vabysmo’s market share rose from 24% to 27% in wet-age macular degeneration, from 18% to 19% in diabetic macular edema (DME) and from 8% to 15% in retinal vein occlusion during the quarter.
The increases are key considering Regeneron's Eylea HD received its permanent J-code from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on April 1, facilitating the reimbursement process. Regeneron had said it expected sales of Eylea HD to increase when the J-code was established.
“We don’t see any impact from the J-codes,” Schinecker said.
Roche expects to get another sales bump for Vabysmo based on the FDA’s approval earlier this month of its delivery in a prefilled syringe. The company also recently presented four-year data in DME that back up Vabysmo’s efficacy and safety profile.
Roche reported overall sales in the first half at 29.8 billion Swiss francs ($33.9 billion), which matched the figure from the first half of last year. Excluding sales of COVID products, however, sales were up 8%, with the group’s pharma and diagnostic divisions sharing equally in the rise.
While Roche stuck with its full-year projection of sales growth in the mid-single-digit range, the company did raise its full-year earnings forecast to a high single-digit increase, up from a mid-single-digit projection. Profit was up 4% in the first half to 11.3 billion Swiss francs ($12.8 billion), topping the analyst consensus of 10.5 billion Swiss francs.
In addition to Vabysmo, other products on the rise for Roche include breast cancer drug Phesgo, which was up 60% for the first half to 799 million Swiss francs ($908 million), and blood cancer drug Polivy, which saw a 54% rise to 513 million Swiss francs ($583 million).
Roche’s top sellers also continued their steady climb. Multiple sclerosis treatment Ocrevus was up 8% to 3.36 billion Swiss francs ($3.8 billion) for the first half, while hemophilia A drug Hemlibra was up 7% to 2.14 billion Swiss francs ($2.4 billion).