Eisai financial report: China continues to grow lenvatinib and perampanel into national health insurance

Recently, Eisai announced its fiscal year 2020 (April 1, 2020-March 31, 2021) performance: total revenue was 645.

Japan's pharmaceutical business declines, while China, the United States and Europe maintain growth

In terms of regions, Japan, the United States, and China ranked the top three in terms of revenue from the pharmaceutical business, but Japan's revenue has declined compared with 2019.

The decline in revenue from the pharmaceutical business in Japan was due to Lyrica (pregabalin), Methycobal (methcobalamin), Aricept (donepezil), Halaven (eribulin), Pariet (rabeprazole), Treakisym (bendamustine) Product sales fell, among which Lyrica's sales fell most obviously due to the impact of generic drugs.

The growth of the pharmaceutical business in China was mainly due to the sales of Lenvima, Halaven and Fycompa.

It is worth mentioning that in 2020 lenvatinib was approved in China for the second indication-radioactive iodine refractory differentiated thyroid cancer, and entered the 2020 national medical insurance through medical insurance negotiations.

Lenvima sales continued to rise, Aricept sales fell significantly

From the perspective of global sales of major products, most of Eisai's major product sales declined in 2020, and the neurological drug Aricept (donepezil) declined the most.

Aricept is a second-generation central acetylcholinesterase (AchE) inhibitor.

Fycompa is a first-in-class anti-epileptic drug developed internally by Eisai.

The sales of Lenvima/Kisplyx (lenvatinib), a major anti-tumor product, still maintains a growth trend, which is mainly due to the expansion of indications.

A variety of drugs under development, the future can be expected

In addition to the above products, Eisai also has a number of drugs under development, such as aducanumab, lecanemab, lorcaserin, denileukin diftitox, tazemetostat, amatuximab, etc.

aducanumab is the first biological agent to target AD-related clinical symptom decline and pathological mechanisms to be submitted to the regulatory agency.

Lecanemab is an experimental humanized monoclonal antibody for Alzheimer’s disease introduced by Eisai from BioArctic.

Lorcaserin is a selective serotonin 5-hydroxytryptamine 2C (5-HT2c) receptor agonist, which selectively activates 5-HT2c receptors in the brain and activates GABAergic inhibitory interneurons.

denileukin diftitox (genetic recombinant) is a fusion protein of interleukin 2 (IL-2) and the receptor binding part of diphtheria toxin, which specifically binds to the IL-2 receptor on the surface of tumor lymphocytes.

Tazemetostat is an oral, pioneering EZH2 inhibitor developed by Epizyme.

Amatuximab is a chimeric immunoglobulin G-1-κ (IgG1/κ) monoclonal antibody with high affinity and specificity for mesothelin.