Busy year for NCEs as major new compound classes launched

1999 was an important year, seeing the first launches of New ChemicalEntities which are already or are forecast to be billion-dollar earners for their respective companies. A total of 33 new compounds and vaccines were introduced into their first markets, with the USA still favored as the debut country followed in second place by Europe. US companies were the major players again this year, having developed the majority of the NCEs.

Last year saw the advent of the so-called super-aspirins and an intense marketing battle between the firms involved, Searle/Pfizer and Merck & Co.

Searle/Pfizer's Celebrex (celecoxib) was the first COX-2 inhibitor to reach the market in the USA in January 1999, a number of months before the launch of Merck's rival compound Vioxx (rofecoxib; Marketletter May 31, 1999). The promise of a new generation of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs with fewer gastrointestinal side effects ensured that Celebrex immediately became a big-seller for the relief of the signs and symptoms of osteoarthritis and adult rheumatoid arthritis (Marketletter January 4 & 11). In the third quarter, sales reached almost $400 million, ahead of Vioxx which brought in $111 million in the same period.