Daiichi Sankyo’s Lixiana (edoxaban), a latecomer in the non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC) market, has taken over rival drug Eliquis’ No. 2 position in sales in the third quarter, industry data showed.

According to UBIST’s data, Lixiana’s outpatient prescription sales ranked third in the first half, after Bayer Korea’s Xarelto (rivaroxaban) and BMS Korea/Pfizer Korea’s Eliquis (apixaban). However, the accumulated revenue of Lixiana during the first three quarters ranked second, beating Eliquis.

The four NOACs recorded 93.4 billion won ($82.1 million) outpatient prescriptions in the first three quarters, up 28 percent from a year earlier.

Xarelto’s sales amounted to 33.5 billion won, Lixiana, 23.7 billion won, Eliquis, 23.7 billion won, and Boehringer Ingelheim’s Pradaxa, 12.3 billion won, during the cited period.

Among them, Lixiana showed the most significant sales growth. Outpatient prescriptions of Lixiana jumped 91.8 percent in the first three quarters, compared to 32.9 percent rise in Eliquis sales, and 18.3 percent expansion in Xarelto’s revenue.

During the same period, prescriptions of Pradaxa went down by 13 percent.

Lixiana has been chasing after Eliquis in the first half by a narrow sales gap of 400 million won. In the third quarter, the ranking of the two treatments flipped with Lixiana selling more by 44 million won.

There has been no study that directly compared the efficacy of the four NOACs. Based on massive-scale phase-3 trials and sub-studies, the academics offer recommendations for particular NOACs and appropriate doses.

Thus, guidelines recommend that physicians consider each patients’ disease characteristics and select the right NOAC, based on the assumption that there is no basis for recommending a specific NOAC product.

hwz@docdocdoc.co.kr

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