Lifitegrast sales off to strong start

The new dry eye drug lifitegrast (Xiidra) has racked up $54 million in sales since its August 2016 launch, capturing 19% of U.S. market share.

Shire says that more than 270,000 prescriptions have been written for lifitegrast in the last 4 months. While the company said it only has access to about 65% of the dry eye market, it claimed lifitegrast maintains 20% of that total market and 50% of the patients new to market.

Those figures are expected to grow, as the Dublin-based company has already filed for approval in Canada, with plans for an additional filing in Europe during the third quarter.

"We launched into a market with very low to no growth. We have dramatically increased the growth of the market," said Flemming Ornskov, MD, MPH, CEO at Shire. "We've activated a significant portion of new patients — we get most of our growth from new patients to market — and we see that as a long-term investment in developing the market, not only U.S. but ex-U.S. And I think our efforts are paying off.

Shire reported a 78% increase in sales overall, a record high, driven in part by the acquisition of hemophilia drugs in a $32 billion takeover of Baxalta in June of last year.

“2016 was a transformational year for Shire as we became the world leader in rare diseases. Our innovative portfolio and sharp focus on commercial excellence enabled us to generate double digit pro forma top-line growth, with reported sales of $10.9 billion, while materially advancing the pipeline, successfully integrating Dyax and progressing the Baxalta integration ahead of schedule,” Flemming said.