Prevymis set to exceed peak year sales

Fol­low­ing the recent news that Nice has rec­om­mend­ed Merck’s Pre­vymis for pre­vent­ing cytomegalovirus (CMV) reac­ti­va­tion in recip­i­ents of hematopoi­et­ic stem cell trans­plan­ta­tion (HSCT).

“Nice’s revised rec­om­men­da­tion is a major com­mer­cial win for Mer­ck that will allow Pre­vymis to be fund­ed by the NHS for seropos­i­tive adult recip­i­ents of allo­gene­ic HSCT in the UK, which cur­rent­ly accounts for near­ly 5 % of the glob­al CMV market.

Accord­ing to Glob­al­Da­ta analy­sis, Pre­vymis sales are expect­ed to com­prise near­ly 15 % of the entire glob­al CMV mar­ket by 2027. A key fac­tor in the drug’s expect­ed growth is its safe­ty advan­tages over old­er prod­ucts for pre­ven­tion of CMV reac­ti­va­tion, such as gan­ci­clovir and val­gan­ci­clovir which are asso­ci­at­ed with poten­tial hematopoi­et­ic and renal tox­i­c­i­ties when used over extend­ed periods.

The 2017 approval of Pre­vymis was the first major break­through to occur in the CMV ther­a­peu­tics and pro­phy­lax­is land­scape in near­ly two decades, but con­cerns about the drug’s cost-effec­tive­ness com­pared to cheap­er antivi­rals such as gener­ic val­gan­ci­clovir ham­pered its roll­out in the UK until now.

There are around 1,800 recip­i­ents of allo­gene­ic HSCT in the UK per year, of which over 60 % are eli­gi­ble to receive Pre­vymis pro­phy­lax­is under cur­rent guide­lines. Glob­al­Da­ta projects that peak year sales for Pre­vymis in the UK are expect­ed to exceed $5.6m.”

Paul Jeng, Senior Phar­ma Ana­lyst at Glob­al­Da­ta, a data and ana­lyt­ics company