Medivation and Astellas' Xtandi to be market-leader in prostate cancer by 2023

Xtandi (enzalutamide), produced by biopharma company Medivation (Nasdaq: MDVN) and Japanese drug major Astellas Pharma (TYO: 4503) is to be the sales-leading agent across the world’s major market for prostate cancer, earning $3.4 billion sales in 2023, according to research by biopharma data and analysis firm Decision Resources Group.

This growth in sales is expected to be primarily driven by the drug’s uptake as a first-line treatment of chemotherapy-naive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. It will then be in competition with the first-to-market novel hormonal agent Zytiga (abiraterone acetate) from Janssen, a unit of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN). The anticipated line extension of Xtandi for the as-yet untapped non-metastatic version of the indication is also set to contribute nearly one third of its major-market sales in 2023 in the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan.

The report also forecasts that the overall prostate cancer market will almost double in size, and that major-market sales of prostate cancer drug therapies will grow from $4.4 billion in 2013 to $9.3 billion in 2023, driven by continued uptake and line extensions of Xtandi and the expected launch of three emerging therapies with high prices.