Astra's Crestor gets sales boost after positive data
LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - U.S. doctors are writing more prescriptions for AstraZeneca Plc's (AZN.L) cholesterol drug Crestor, following positive clinical trial results with the medicine released earlier this month.
Crestor's share of the U.S. statin drug market in terms of new prescriptions rose to 10.7 percent in the week ended Nov. 14, up from 10.1 percent a week earlier, according to figures compiled by IMS Health and cited by several brokerages.
Its total prescription share rose to 9.8 percent from 9.5 percent.
Industry analysts said the growth was impressive, even though it was only for one week, and suggested Crestor could could continue to gain ground against big brand rivals.
Morgan Stanley said Crestor appeared to be taking market share from both Merck & Co Inc (MRK.N) and Schering-Plough Corp's SGP.N Vytorin and Pfizer Inc's (PFE.N) Lipitor.
"AstraZeneca may achieve our market share assumptions considerably more quickly than we and consensus appreciate. Should AZ achieve a 12 percent TRx (total prescription) market share in 2009, there would be around 4 percent upside to our 2009 EPS forecasts," Paul Mann and colleagues said in a note.
Shares in AstraZeneca ended 10 percent higher, in line with a surging London stock market but outperforming the European drugs sector .SXDP, which rose 6.4 percent.
AstraZeneca Chief Executive David Brennan told the Reuters Health Summit in New York last week that Crestor had plenty of room to grow and clinical trial results would help set it apart from the competition.
AstraZeneca on Nov. 9 unveiled data from a Crestor study in patients with excellent cholesterol but elevated levels of a protein associated with heart disease.
In that study, called Jupiter, patients who received 20 milligrams of Crestor daily saw heart attacks cut by 54 percent, strokes by 48 percent and the need for angioplasty or bypass was cut by 46 percent compared to a placebo. Death was reduced by 20 percent in less than two years.
Although AstraZeneca has been careful not to predict an immediate upsurge in Crestor sales due to the startling Jupiter results, many analysts have hiked sales forecasts for a medicine that promises to be the group's key mid-term growth driver.
Worldwide sales are widely predicted to more than double from last year's total of $2.8 billion by 2012.
Outside the United States, Crestor has already achieved market shares of around 20 percent or 25 percent in places like Canada, Italy and France.
(Editing by Sharon Lindores)
