Roche’s Kadcyla sales KRW 70 bil…unrivaled lead in ADC mkt

Dominates Korea’s antibody-drug conjugate market

Daiichi Sankyo’s Enhertu follows the lead with KRW 20.4 billion in sales…Takeda’s Adcetris posts KRW 9.8 billion

Pfizer and Gilead race to acquire Seagen and Immunomedics, respectively, to develop and dominate the ADC market

Roche’s Kadcyla continues to remain the unrivaled lead in the domestic ADC (Antibody-Drug Conjugate) drug market, accounting for 60% share of the KRW 120 billion market.

 

Based on drug distribution performance, the domestic ADC drug market was valued at KRW 113.8 billion last year, of which Kadcyla (treatment for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer) accounted for KRW 75.8 billion, maintaining the top rank in the market ever since its launch.

 

Kadcyla’s sales in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 were in the range of KRW 35.4 billion, KRW 43.5 billion, KRW 52.7 billion, and KRW 51.8 billion, respectively.

 

In second place is Daiichi Sankyo's Enhertu (treatment for HER2-positive breast cancer), which posted KRW 20.4 billion last year.

 

Takeda's Adcetris (Hodgkin's lymphoma) and Pfizer's Besponsa (lymphoblastic leukemia) are on an upward curve, posting sales of KRW 9.8 billion and KRW 5.5 billion each in 2023.

 

Sales of Astellas’ Padcev (metastatic urothelial carcinoma), Roche’s Polivy (B-cell lymphoma), Pfizer’s Mylotarg (myeloid leukemia), and Gilead’s Troldelvy (triple-negative breast cancer) remain in the KRW 400 to 900 range.

 

Meanwhile, Kadcyla is regarded as Roche's defense or alternative to the inflow of Herceptin biosimilar and is a targeted anti-cancer drug that links Herceptin (trastuzumab) antibody to a taxane-based anticancer drug.

 

Its prescribing strengths include prolonged survival (6 months longer in clinical trials) and minimized side effects.

 

A global research firm (Motley Fool) has recognized Kadcyla’s product power and rated it as one of the world's top 7 drugs, along with Eliquis and Tecfidera.

 

Enhertu is known to have overcome the limitations of existing therapies and is effective across solid tumors, not just in one indication.

 

Earlier last month, the US FDA approved Enhertu as a tumor-agnostic treatment, of any type, allowing the drug to be used in patients with HER2-positive solid tumors with an immunohistochemistry (IHC) score of 3 or higher.

 

The global ADC drug market has more than doubled in 3 years, from KRW 4 trillion in 2019 to KRW 13 trillion in 2023, and is expected to reach KRW 41 trillion by 2028.

 

Since the first ADC, Pfizer's Mylotarg, was approved by the FDA in 2000, 13 ADCs have been introduced to the market.

 

Pfizer acquired Seagen, a leader in the ADC field, late last year for USD 59 trillion to pave the way in ADC.

 

Gilead Sciences also acquired Immunomedics in September 2020 for USD 29 trillion.

 

Through the acquisition, the company acquired Immunomedics’ ADC development technology and FDA-approved ADC therapies.