Recently, with the release of 2023 financial reports by multinational pharmaceutical companies such as Merck, Pfizer, Abbott Laboratories, and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), sales performance of some heavyweight varieties has successively appeared.
From a pharmaceutical perspective, in 2023, Merck&Gamble achieved sales of $25 billion, locking in the global pharmaceutical king position ahead of schedule.
K-drug is the second globally approved PD-1 drug. With the industry's largest clinical research project in immunooncology, K drug has been approved for nearly 40 indications globally, with 13 indications approved in China, which has contributed to the growth of sales.
The global drug king of the previous year was Abbott's self medication, Shumeile, which held this throne for 11 years. However, with the influx of a large number of biologically similar drugs, the market where Xiumeile is located is gradually being divided up. According to Abbott's financial report, in 2023, the global sales of Xiumeile remained at only $14.404 billion, a decrease of $6.836 billion from 2022.
Abbott's past achievements were inseparable from the achievements of Xiu Meile. Relying on this single product, the company has been at the forefront of the self exemption field for many years. Due to the decline in Xiumeile's revenue, Abbott's net income for the entire year of 2023 was $54.318 billion, which also decreased by 6.4%.
However, for Merck, it may be difficult for K-drug to maintain its position as the global drug king for a long time, as sales of another heavyweight drug variety, Novo Nordisk's Smegglutide, are approaching.
Smegglutide is a GLP-1 (glucagon like peptide-1) receptor agonist. In the past 2023, many GLP-1 concept stocks have been sought after in many global capital markets.
As the star product of Novo Nordisk, Smeglutide's total sales will reach about 21.2 billion dollars in 2023, of which Smeglutide injection Ozempic (type 2 diabetes) sales will be about 13.9 billion dollars, up 60% year on year; The sales volume of Smeaglutide tablet Rybelsus (type 2 diabetes) is about 2.7 billion US dollars, up 66% year on year. This product has also been approved for listing in China recently; The sales of Wegovy (Obesity) Injection, a slimming version of Smegglutide, were approximately $4.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 407%.
As the overall demand for GLP-1 products increases in the market, Novo Nordisk continues to increase investment in production bases to expand the production capacity of Smegglutide.
Recently, Novo Nordisk's major shareholder, Novo Nordisk Holdings, announced that it will acquire Contilent, a biopharmaceutical contract manufacturer headquartered in the United States, in an all cash transaction. As part of the transaction, Novo Nordisk will acquire three filling factories in Italy, Belgium, and the United States from Novo Nordisk Holdings for a prepayment of $11 billion. The company said that the new factory will provide services for more patients with diabetes and obesity, and this acquisition will help to achieve the expansion of production scale and speed.
The strongest competitor of Smeglutide is Lilly's Tilpoltide, which is the first and only GIPR/GLP-1 dual target agonist in the world. The indications for type 2 diabetes and weight loss of this drug were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2022 and November 2023, respectively, with the trade names of Mounjaro and Zepbound.
According to Lilly's financial report, Mounjaro's annual sales in 2023 were $5.163 billion, and with Zepbound's sales of $176 million, the overall sales of Tilposide reached $5.339 billion, a significant increase of 970% year-on-year.