In 2001, the 100 global highest selling drug brands included 18 CV drugs and five diabetes drugs, which generated sales of $41bn and accounted for 29.2% of the top selling drugs.
The sheer size of these markets underlines the vital importance of CV and diabetes brands to overall market performance and positioning of major pharmaceutical company portfolios. However, competition is fierce, with patents expiring on several key drugs.

• Draws on the 2002 PharmaVitae brief entitled “The Top 100 Drugs of 2001”, and provides updated sales to H1 2002

  
  

• Looks at the ‘winner and losers’ of the CV and diabetes markets to analyze the factors driving the dynamics of the markets’ highest selling drugs

  
  

• Forecasts future trends affecting the sales performance of top-selling products and the resulting impact on their marketing companies

  
  

The battle of the leading statins, Zocor and Lipitor continues, despite new wars on the horizon – generic competition and new ‘superstatins’

The first ARBs, Cozaar and Diovan, still lead the market, although face a growing threat from new more efficacious brands with new indications in the pipeline

BMS/Sanofi-Synthelabo’s antiplatelet drug, Plavix, launched in 1998, experienced one of the highest growth rates following positive results from the CURE trial. Meanwhile, older products with new indications such as AstraZeneca’s Seloken, and Aventis’ Altace also continue to exhibit strong growth.

• Access insighful analysis of the most recent dynamics in the cardiovascular and diabetes markets, with a view to predicting future trends.

  
  

• Identify the most effective lifecycle management strategies for major brands facing intense competition

  
  

• Benchmark you marketing and product development strategies against those of the leading performers

  
  

In 2001, the ranking of the 100 highest-selling global pharmaceutical brands included 18 cardiovascular drugs, and five diabetes drugs representing combined sales of $41bn and accounting for 29.2% of the top selling drugs. Sales of cardiovascular drugs were led by two statins, Pfizer’s Lipitor and Merck & Co.’s Zocor, which generated sales of $6.4bn and $6.6bn, respectively.

The sheer size of these markets underlines the vital importance of cardiovascular and diabetes brands to the overall market performance and positioning of major pharmaceutical company portfolios. However competition is fierce and, with the patent expiry of several key compounds, companies are looking to maximize revenue streams for existing products while examining their pipelines with renewed urgency for potential future blockbuster drugs.

This brief is the first in a series of two related reports focusing on sales of leading cardiovascular and diabetes brands. The second title will explore the potential for future blockbusters in these markets and assess their impact on company portfolios and future strategies.

Provides an in-depth analysis of the global sales performance in 2000, 2001 and during the first half of 2002 of the leading cardiovascular and diabetes drugs featured in Datamonitor’s PharmaVitae brief “The Top 100 Drugs of 2001”

Analyzes in detail the main drivers of growth and threats facing these drugs’ in the future

Builds on the sales overview by taking a wider view of the individual drugs’ performances and analyzing the contribution of individual drugs and therapy areas to leading cardiovascular sales

Provides a comparative analysis of the companies marketing the leading cardiovascular and diabetes drugs

Identifies the “winners and losers” over recent and coming years

Assesses the lifecycle management strategies used to protect the revenue streams generated by these “blockbuster” drugs from the effects of new market entrants and generic competition

The battle of the leading statins, Zocor and Lipitor continues, despite new wars on the horizon – generic competition and new ‘superstatins’

The first ARBs, Cozaar and Diovan, still lead the market, although face a growing threat from new more efficacious brands with new indications in the pipeline

BMS/Sanofi-Synthelabo’s antiplatelet drug, Plavix, launched in 1998, experienced one of the highest growth rates following positive results from the CURE trial

Older products with new indications such as AstraZeneca’s Seloken, and Aventis’ Altace continue to exhibit strong growth

BMS has suffered most from patent expiries over 2001-02 with the loss of metformin in the US

Details the brand names, generic names, marketing companies, indications, key clinical trials, launch dates and US patent expiry dates of the cardiovascular and diabetes drugs included in the 100 global top-selling drug brands

List of tables

Table 1: Top Selling Cardiovascular and Diabetes Drug Sales 2000-H1 2002

Table 2: Top 18 selling cardiovascular drugs by class 2001

Table 3: Breakdown of Top Selling Cardiovascular Drugs by Company 2000-2001

Table 4: Ranking of Top Selling CV Drugs 2000-2001

Table 5: Ranking of Top Selling Diabetes Drugs 2000-2001

Table 6: Factfile of the Top Selling Cardiovascular Drugs

Table 7: Factfile of the Top Selling Diabetes Drugs

List of figures

Figure 1: Sales Evolution of Selected Blockbuster Cardiovascular drugs 1997-2001

Figure 2: Split of Top Selling Cardiovascular Drugs by Drug Class 2001