The Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer reigns as the world’s best-selling drug in 2022, with more than 35.4 billion euros entering last year. This is a stratospheric figure within the pharmaceutical industry, much higher than the income generated by any other therapy in history. Thanks to the commercialization of this product, in addition, Pfizer has managed to become the first laboratory to overcome the barrier of 100,000 million dollars in turnover last year and to obtain an annual net profit of 31,300 million.
This vaccine, called Comirnatyleads the ranking of the drugs with the most sales in the world last year, according to data provided by the British consultancy Airfinity a Five days (see graph).
Comirnaty has generated 70,000 million in sales in the last two years to Pfizer. This vaccine was the first to be administered in almost the entire world – also the first time that a messenger RNA product was used – to stop the pandemic and the most used in the world against the versions of Moderna, Janssen or AstraZeneca. In any case, it is expected that the decline of this product – developed jointly with the German firm BioNTech – will begin in 2023 due to the control of the pandemic and cause the income of the US laboratory to fall between 33% and 29%, according to their own forecasts published on January 31.
More than 90,000 million
Until the arrival of Comirnaty, the drug with the highest income in the world was Humira, indicated to treat various pathologies such as arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. In fact, in the last five years it has contributed more than 93,240 million euros to its American manufacturer Abbvie, according to Airfinity. Last year, it was the second best-selling drug, generating nearly $20 billion in revenue.
The third product that generated the most revenue in the world is Keytruda, an antitumor of Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), for which the American manufacturer pocketed more than 19,600 million. It is also the most economically successful drug in the new class of cancer immunotherapy products. This type of high-cost treatment is highly selective chemotherapy, with better results and fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapy. In the case of this monoclonal antibody, it was approved for melanoma and, subsequently, it has been used for other indications such as lung cancer and ten other tumors.
Pfizer also placed another therapy among the best-selling in the world last year. In this case, the Paxlovid antiviral against Covid-19, thanks to sales of 17,731 million, since in 2021 it had launched that product, but it practically did not arrive on time to be marketed (76 million). It is the first oral treatment for those affected by this coronavirus.
The American manufacturer manages to sneak another product into the ranking, in this case Eliquis (an anticoagulant), in this case produced together with the also American company Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS).
Also in the therapeutic area of Covid, the biotechnological Modern He managed last year to bring his vaccine (called Spikevax) among the best sellers, which generated 17,230 million for a company that had barely any income before the pandemic.
A ranking monopolized by the USA
American companies practically dominate the list of blockbusters (best seller, in the jargon of the sector). Next to Pfizer, Abbvie, Moderna and MSDrepeats in the ranking with three products BMS (the anticoagulant Eliquis, the antitumor Revlimid and the cancer immunotherapy Opdivo). He also highlights Janssen (Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical) with Stelera immunology treatment and with Imbruvica (anti-tumor in collaboration with Abbvie).
European companies have lost presence among the treatments with the highest turnover. The disappearance in the ranking of Roche, which until a few years ago had strong implantation with its antitumor drugs (and which have been losing the patent). they just sneak in Bayer (with Eylea) and Sanofi (with Dupixent).
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