Vertex' Incivek set to break record for fastest product launch

Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ (Nasdaq: VRTX) new hepatitis C drug Incivek (telaprevir) is being touted as the fastest new product launch on record, notes a report from EvaluatePharma’s EP Vantage, pointing out that only three products have achieved blockbuster sales in the USA in their first 12 months on the market.

One of those is Pfizer’s Lipitor (atorvastatin) which, although the all-time biggest selling drug, surprisingly did not top the list - with first four quarters on market sales of $990 million. It was beaten by Pharmacia’s Celebrex (velecoxib; $1.55 billion) and Merck & Co’s Vioxx (rofecoxib; $1.01 billion).

Incivek’s astonishing US sales of $420 million in the third quarter, which blew consensus estimates out of the water, says EP Vantage, certainly put it on track to break the record for the fastest ever launch. Incivek has already earned one accolade, its first full quarter sales breaking Viagra’s (sildenafil) quarterly record of $409 million when it was launched in 1998. Yet the data below also show that Incivek is the exception that proves the rule that new products remain slow to get off the ground these days.