As a new-generation anticoagulant, clopidogrel can selectively inhibit the binding of ADP and platelet receptor, thereby inhibiting the platelet aggregation and activation, and is used for atherosclerosis, acute coronary syndrome and thromboembolism complications, etc., with quite eye-catching performance after marketing.
Hot on international market
First marketed in the U.S. in 1997, clopidogrel thereafter entered the European, Canadian and Australian markets, etc., and had quite good performance after the marketing, with sales rising sharply for consecutive years: USD 140 million in 1998, USD 2 billion in 2001, USD 4 billion in 2003, USD 6.4 billion in 2005, USD 8.1 billion in 2007, USD 9.7 billion in 2009, and the peak USD 10 billion in 2011, becoming a global blockbuster drug and one of the few pharmaceutical products with sales exceeding USD 10 billion on the international pharmaceutical market. It has been included in the pharmacopeia of countries like the U.S., UK, Japan, India, South Korea, and that of Europe, with wide application scope and large application volume in the world.
Strong growth in China
Clopidogrel was marketed in China in 2001, and its sales have continued to rise after the marketing, with significant growth momentum in recent years. There are currently 3 enterprises selling clopidogrel tablets in China: Plavix of Sanofi, Taijia of Shenzhen Salubris, and Shuaitai and Shuaixin of Lepu Pharmaceutical. The sales of clopidogrel in China reached RMB 1.079 billion in 2011, RMB 1.448 billion in 2013, RMB 1.741 billion in 2015, and RMB 1.858 billion in 2016, with the compound annual growth rate reaching 16.37% from 2009 to 2016.
Clopidogrel is currently the main antiplatelet drug in China, with sales in sample cities of nearly RMB 1.5 billion in 2015, accounting for 81% of the entire market; the total sales of the top 5 antiplatelet drug enterprises accounted for 89% of the entire market, with the foreign enterprise Sanofi accounting for nearly 50% of the market; the 3 preparation manufacturers (Sanofi, Salubris and Lepu) of clopidogrel separately ranked first, second and fourth, and the varieties of Tide Pharmaceutical that ranked third and AstraZeneca that ranked fifth were separately beraprost and ticagrelor.
Analysis of prospects of future market
1. Growth momentum will still be strong
Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases such as cerebral thrombosis, cerebral infarction, myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease and arteriosclerosis take the lives of 12 million people in the world every year, nearly one fourth of all the global death toll. The number of people who die of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases is 2.60 million every year in China, and 75% of the survivors are disabled thereby. The next 2 decades will be the period witnessing the fastest growth of the aging population in China, and the aging population above 60 years old is estimated to reach 260 million by 2020, accounting for 17.8% of the total population of China, and reach 400 million around 2033, with average growth of 10 million every year, and highest growth of over 14 million in a year. Chinese and overseas demands for drugs preventing and treating thrombotic diseases are large, and the sales of global antithrombotic drug market reached USD 23.5 billion in 2013 and such sales are expected to reach USD 25.9 billion in 2018. In China, the antithrombotic drug market reached RMB 3 billion in sample cities in 2015, with a steady growth trend. The average annual growth rate of antithrombotic drugs in China exceeded 10% from 2010 to 2015, and market development prospects are good.
The number of thrombotic disease patients and potential patients in China is almost equal to that in the European and American countries, however, the antithrombotic therapy in China is based on general drugs such as small-dose aspirin, and the antithrombotic drug commonly used in the world with definite effect: clopidogrel has not been really promoted and popularized in China, with sales in China being only a fraction of those in other developed countries, and its market has large room for development in the future.
2. Market compe...
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