Roche’s long-acting macular degeneration drug Vabysmo—which is projected to generate sales of $3.3 billion in just its second full year on the market—has taken a chunk of the market from Regeneron and Bayer’s Eylea.
But while the New York company has felt the effects of the competition acutely, Bayer—which commercializes Eylea outside of the United States—hasn’t taken quite the same hit.
In the first quarter of this year, Bayer’s sales of Eylea came (PDF) to 782 million euros ($846 million). While it was a 0.9% decline year over year, it was a 3.4% increase when adjusting for foreign exchange rate fluctuations.
Last month, Regeneron reported worldwide sales of Eylea—combined with its high-dose follow-on—were down 2% in the period, from $1.43 billion to $1.40 billion.
During Tuesday’s quarterly conference call, Bayer executive were still calling Eylea one of its growth products. Chief financial officer Wolfgang Nickl spoke of the “continued robust development of Eylea,” and credited the product with helping “offset headwinds in parts of our mature portfolio.”
Pharma chief Stefan Oelrich said that the solid performance of Eylea in the quarter came despite a lag in launching the new Eylea HD, which is better suited to compete with Vabysmo. While Regeneron began selling Eylea HD in the U.S. in August, the high-dose version wasn’t approved in Europe until January of this year and has yet to be launched in many countries.
“We’re very happy what we’re seeing with Eylea across most of our territories,” Oelrich said. “And the 8 milligrams (formulation) doesn’t even really play a major role yet in any of our territories. We’ve introduced this in Germany, so this is going to be a gradual launch as we clear market-access hurdles around the world.”
Oelrich added that Bayer has been able to increase volumes and maintain price across the Eylea franchise despite the competition from Roche.
“What we’re seeing is competition is taking share from (Roche’s) Lucentis and much less so from Eylea,” Oelrich said. “And we think that with (Eylea HD) we’re going to have an even more favorable dynamic, so stay tuned to how this works out pricing-wise.”
Overall for the quarter, Bayer reported a year-over-year revenue decline of 4%, with sales in its crop science sector falling by 5% and consumer health division down by 9%. The pharma division continued to be the company’s strong suit with a sales decline of just 1%, which is adjusted to a 4% increase when accounting for foreign exchange rates.
Sales from Bayer’s highest-selling pharma product, Xarelto, were down 2%, with further decreases expected in the next three quarters as generic competition emerges in some countries in Europe.
On the plus side, prostate cancer drug Nubeqa generated 283 million euros ($306 million), which was a 59% increase from the same period last year. The result prompted Oelrich to christen it as a “blockbuster.”
Sales of kidney disease treatment Kerendia reached 85 million euros for the quarter. While it was a 63% increase, Oelrich said that the company has been “a little underwhelmed by the development of the renal market.”