18 mei draait voornamelijk om de verkoopresultaten van Ruconest. Hier is een korte opsomming uit het laatste jaarrapport van punten die betrekking hebben op deze sales in de eerste periode van dit jaar. Waar wij dan weer conclusies aan kunnen verbinden.
USA
For a second year running, our US partner changed in 2015. In April, after a successful first quarter growing sales, our partner Salix was acquired by Valeant Pharmaceuticals Later in the year the sales force was reduced as Valeant decided to concentrate on the high-prescribing clinics within HAE. At the same time, the number of medical services liaisons was reduced. These changes caused an interruption in the sales growth of RUCONEST® after strong growth in the first two quarters.
Following recent re-adjustments of the sales force by Valeant, a more reliable sales pattern is emerging
The acute segment is estimated at approximately $700 million, led by Firazyr® from Shire and Berinert® from CSL Behring. Berinert is also a plasma derived C1- inhibitor, whereas Firazyr® only blocks the bradykinin pathway and as result of that suffers from the frequent need for patients to take two or three rounds of Firazyr® therapy within 24 hours to stop an HAE attack because the attack rebounds.
The opposite is one of the biggest selling points for RUCONEST®, which, as C1- inhibitor (enzyme replacement therapy) blocks all pathways for the disease and is dosed at a level sufficient to be effective first time in virtually all patients
EUROPE
The commercialization of RUCONEST® by SOBI in the EU and other European states continues to progress, albeit more slowly. Sales growth has been good in Eastern Europe, but the entrenched positions of competing products in Western Europe continues to be the main obstacle to full potential
Pharming has made progress in direct commercialization of Germany, Austria and the Netherlands through its own sales force, also against deeply entrenched competition, with sales starting to come through in those territories now
OTHER MARKETS
RUCONEST® approval was obtained in South Korea in December 2015 through our partner there HyupJin. In Turkey, our partner Eczacibasi Ilac Pazarlama A.S. has been struggling to obtain regulatory approval, and it may be necessary for Pharming to take over that territory in 2016, or to find a different partner for Turkey.
In Israel, RUCONEST® is being marketed by our local partner Megapharm.
In April 2015 we agreed a distribution deal with Cytobioteck SAS, a leading Colombian pharmaceutical company. This agreement produced initial sales on a named-patient compassionate use basis already in 2015. Early in 2016 we agreed to extend this distribution agreement to four additional countries:Argentina, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Panama