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Eylea continues to be a strong franchise for Regeneron
Leonard Schleifer, president and CEO of Regeneron, touted Eylea's 2016 sales and said pricing needs to remain the same.
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Eylea saw $3.32 billion in U.S. net sales for 2016, and global sales of the neovascular age-related macular degeneration treatment reached more than $5.52 billion, according to a speaker at the 35th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.
The full-year net sales in the U.S. for Eylea (aflibercept, Regeneron) increased by 24% year over year, on the higher end of what Regeneron expected in sales for 2016, Leonard S. Schleifer, MD, PhD, president and CEO of Regeneron, said at the conference.
“We had about $858 million, or thereabouts, in the fourth quarter. It continues to grow. Fourth quarter was about a 15% increase year over year. We can still see opportunities, and we’re still investing in this product,” Schleifer said.
Market leader
Eylea is the market-leading product among FDA-approved anti-VEGF agents for its indications, according to information in Schleifer’s presentation.
The drug is currently in several ongoing studies, Schleifer noted in his presentation. A phase 2 study of Eylea and Ang-2 MAb is ongoing for AMD and diabetic macular edema. The phase 3 PANORAMA study for diabetic retinopathy is underway and is a part of Protocol W, an ongoing DRCR.net-conducted study.
“When you can take a product like Eylea, and take people who can’t read to their grandchildren, and then give them readable vision and then prevent them from losing vision over time if they have wet AMD, that’s very satisfying,” Schleifer said.
Appropriate pricing
Schleifer also mentioned the importance of pharmaceutical companies pricing their products correctly and improving the reputations of pharmaceutical companies in the eyes of their customers.
“We at Regeneron haven’t raised the prices. We don’t have a lot of drugs on the market, but we’ve never raised the price of any of our drugs. There are responsible things we can do, and there are things we can do to get people to understand that all the great things we do should be rewarded with great acclaim and admiration, not with being despised,” he said. – by Robert Linnehan
- Reference:
- Schleifer LS. Growth through innovation. Presented at: 35th Annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference; Jan. 9-13, 2017; San Francisco.
Disclosure: Schleifer reports he is the president and CEO of Regeneron.