The global pharmaceutical innovation index list is released! Eli Lilly won the championship, 4 innovative pharmaceutical companies made the list for the first time, BeiGene, Moderna...

The pharmaceutical R&D investment is large, the cycle is long, and the risk is high. How to judge the future potential of a pharmaceutical company? Innovative R&D and clinical translation capabilities may be an important basis for evaluation.

A few days ago, the British pharmaceutical consulting company IDEA Pharma released the 2021 Pharmaceutical Innovation Index and Pharmaceutical Invention Index rankings. BeiGene made the list for the first time, ranking 27th and 5th respectively. It is the only Chinese pharmaceutical company on the list. Hengrui Medicine missed the list this year after being on the list in 2020.

IDEA Pharma's Pharmaceutical Innovation Index (Pharmaceutical Innovation Index) focuses on the company's full-process time for a therapy to pass regulatory approval. The Pharmaceutical Invention Index (Pharmaceutical Invention Index) focuses on the breadth and depth of the R&D pipeline of pharmaceutical companies, as well as the novelty of therapies under research in the R&D pipeline.

Eli Lilly returns to the top of the pharmaceutical innovation index

BMS Won the Champion of Pharmaceutical Invention Index

Eli Lilly

If you have an early molecule, which company can better use it? According to IDEA Pharma's latest assessment, it is Eli Lilly and Company.

In the 2021 Pharmaceutical Innovation Index list, Eli Lilly rose 4 places to top the list. The rise in the ranking is mainly due to a large number of positive clinical results and robust financial data. Eli Lilly's revenue in 2020 is nearly 24.6 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 10% over the previous year. The largest sources of revenue are the diabetes drugs Jardiance and Trulicity. In 2020, Eli Lilly invested US$6.08 billion in R&D, an increase of 9% year-on-year, but the proportion of R&D investment in sales fell from 25.1% in 2019 to 24.8%.

This year, Eli Lilly's most promising blockbuster drug may be the migraine drug Emgalality, which has launched key differentiated data and became the first drug in its class to prove that it can reduce the total pain burden of patients with paroxysmal and chronic migraine.

In addition, the dual GIP/GLP-1 agonist tirzepatide, another potential drug of Eli Lilly, has positive results in a number of phase 3 clinical trials. Tirzepatide defeated Novo Nordisk's smeglutide on a number of indicators. The drug is expected to Become the successor to its GLP-1 agonist dulaglutide. Eli Lilly’s Alzheimer’s disease antibody therapy donanemab reached its primary endpoint in a phase 2 clinical trial.


Bristol-Myers Squibb

This year, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) topped the list of the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index. This is largely due to the fact that BMS has substantially expanded its product line through the acquisition of Celgene. Through this acquisition, BMS obtained the potential blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug ozanimod, which was approved by the FDA last year.

In addition, BMS's 2020 financial data is quite eye-catching, with revenue of 42.5 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 63% over the previous year. From the product point of view, revlimd, Eliquis and Opdivo contributed the most revenue. BMS will invest US$11.14 billion in R&D in 2020, an increase of US$5 billion from 2019, and R&D investment accounts for 26% of sales. BMS also reported many clinical "victories" in 2020.

As BMS transforms its high-potential drug molecules into innovative drugs, IDEA Pharma expects that it will continue to rise in the pharmaceutical innovation index rankings in the next few years.

4 innovative pharmaceutical companies made the list for the first time!

Only BeiGene is on the list for Chinese pharmaceutical companies

It is worth noting that 4 innovative pharmaceutical companies were selected for the first time in the pharmaceutical innovation index list, including Seagen (4th), Inycte (5th), Moderna (20th) and BeiGene (27th).


SEAGEN

The company Seagen (Seattle Genetics) first appeared on the pharmaceutical innovation index list and achieved a good score of 4 and ranked 22nd in the ranking of the pharmaceutical innovation index. Seagen achieved strong financial performance in 2020, with total revenue of nearly $2.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 137%. The company has three anti-tumor products already on the market, the antibody-drug conjugates Adcetris and Padcev, and the newly approved best-in-class TYK inhibitor Tukysa. In addition, Seagen has 9 candidate projects, 2 of which are in the late clinical development stage.


INCYTE

Incyte is on the list of the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index for the first time, ranking fifth. Incyte's total revenue in 2020 increased by 24%, mainly due to its blockbuster JAK inhibitor Jakafi, which has revenues of nearly 2 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 and is still growing rapidly. In 2020, Incyte's Monjuvi combined with lenalidomide was approved by the FDA for the treatment of relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (r/r DLBCL) adult patients who are not suitable for autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). Pemazyre is approved for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma patients who have been previously treated, have FGFR2 fusion or rearrangement, and cannot be surgically removed.In addition, Incyte and Eli Lilly’s other JAK inhibitor Olumiant achieved positive phase III results in patients with atopic dermatitis.


Moderna

Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, mRNA vaccines have developed rapidly. Among them, Moderna's new crown vaccine mRNA-1273 has been approved for marketing. It is predicted that the vaccine sales will reach 14 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. Moderna is also developing a candidate vaccine mRNA-1273.351 against the new coronavirus mutant strain B.1.351, and a multivalent vaccine mRNA-1273.21. In addition, Moderna is also developing a next-generation COVID-19 vaccine that can remain stable at refrigerated temperatures.

In addition to the new crown vaccine research and development project, Moderna has advanced 14 mRNA candidate vaccines to the clinical development stage. Among them, the candidate vaccine mRNA-1647 for cytomegalovirus (CMV) is in the phase 2 clinical development stage; the candidate vaccine mRNA-1345 for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) also obtained positive results in the interim analysis of the phase 1 clinical trial. Moderna is also developing innovative mRNA vaccines against influenza virus and HIV virus, and is expected to start clinical trials this year.


BeiGene

BeiGene was selected for the first time this year in the pharmaceutical innovation index and the pharmaceutical invention index rankings, ranking 27th and 5th respectively.

According to public information, BeiGene's R&D investment in 2020 totaled 1.29 billion U.S. dollars (approximately RMB 8.3 billion), an increase of 39.11% year-on-year, far surpassing Hengrui Pharmaceuticals. Up to now, BeiGene has 2 independently developed new drugs (Tilelizumab and Zebutinib) and 4 authorized imported products on sale. In addition, BeiGene also has 35 early clinical drug candidates, including a number of anti-tumor drugs with potential differentiation advantages, such as TIGIT, OX40, BCL-2, TIM-3, HPK1, etc., covering a wide range of cutting-edge drug targets around the world Point or mechanism of action. Among them, TIGIT antibody is expected to enter a critical clinical stage in 2021. 

Conclusion

In the list of the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index and the Pharmaceutical Invention Index, it can be seen that in addition to MNC pharmaceutical companies, there are also a number of innovative pharmaceutical companies with lower revenues. In the pharmaceutical innovation index list, Eli Lilly and Roche ranked second. However, some smaller companies appeared in the future, and Regeneron, Seagen, and Inycte entered the top five. Seagen and Incyte are both companies on the list for the first time, and Regeneron also jumped from 10th to third.

Why are there many innovative pharmaceutical companies on the list? Because the list not only considers the sales of existing products, but also considers the clinical research of new molecular entities and biological products. In fact, smaller innovative pharmaceutical companies may be more innovative. Dr. Jiang He, Chairman of Chengdu Fuzhi Health, once said that large companies are often not enough in terms of original motivation, while small companies may only have R&D innovation or R&D innovation. Lord, otherwise you cannot survive. IDEA Pharm points out that smaller companies are now more capable than ever to bring their products to patients without the need to cooperate with MNC.

Only by focusing on value creation and differentiation can companies continue to move forward, instead of resting on previous achievements. There are also a number of innovative pharmaceutical companies in China that are growing rapidly, hoping to embark on the path of innovation in Chinese pharmaceuticals.