Eight drugs expected to reach blockbuster status by 2021, says report

The 2017 “Drugs to Watch” report predicts that eight new drugs will enter the market this year and each achieve $1 billion in annual sales by 2021.

Conducted by Clarivate Analytics, the report predicts that Roche’s Ocrevus (ocrelizumab), a treatment for multiple sclerosis, will have the highest sales—at $3.3 billion.

Followed by this are Regeneron and Sanofi’s Dupixent (dupilumab) for allergic conditions, AstraZeneca’s durvalumab for cancer, Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide for type 2 diabetes, as well as Eli Lilly’s and Incyte’s Olumiant (barcitinib) for rheumatoid arthritis.

Ranked further down are Novartis’s robociclib, Merck Serono’s and Pfizer’s avelumab, and Tesaro’s niraparib, which are all treatments for cancer.

From the highest to the lowest rankings, Ocrevus is expected to reach $3.3 billion in annual sales while niraparib is expected to sell $1.1 billion.

In January 2016, Clarivate Analytics named seven emerging drugs which were expected to enter the market last year and achieve blockbuster status by 2020.

According to the 2017 report, last year was “unusually slow” for new drug approvals, but all seven highlighted drugs entered the market as expected.

The report added: “However, due to clinical and marketing setbacks during the year for two of the drugs (Ocaliva and Nuplazid), only five of those drugs are still forecast to reach blockbuster status by 2020.”