Report Shows Diabetes Drug Best Sellers
“Top 100 Selling Drugs Through September,” an article in the October 31 issue of Medscape (sourced from IMS Health), shows that while eight diabetes medications are in the nation’s top 100 best-selling drugs, none are in the top 10.
The report tracked sales and prescription numbers for the top drugs from October 1, 2012 through September 30, 2013.
The eight drugs named below are listed according to the number of their position in the sales rankings and their total dollar sales:
14. Januvia, $2.825 billion
15. Lantus Solostar: $2.779 billion
18. Lantus: $2.515 billion
34. Novolog: $1.33 billion
35. Novolog Flexpen: $1.317 billion
39. Humalog: $1.143 billion
47. Janument: $967 million
90. Actos: $130 million
Prescription Numbers
The report also ranked the top 100 drugs by number of prescriptions over the same one-year period, both new and refills. There were 12 diabetes drugs in the category.
10. Lantus: 9.5 million
13. Lantus Solostar: 9.053 million
15. Januvia: 8,746 million
30. Levemir: 4.75 million
35. Novolog: 4.2 million
40. Novolog Flexpen: 3.976 million
43. Humalog: 3.568 million
49. Janumet: 3.26 million
65. Humalog Kwikpen: 2.234 million
73. Onglyza: 1.78 million
77. Victoza: 1.684 million
100. Humulin: 1.217 million
The top prescribed non-diabetes drug was Crestor, with 23.737 million prescriptions.
The Top 10 Overall
The 10 top-selling drugs for the reported sales period were:
1. Abilify: $6.391 billion
2. Nexium: $6.087 billion
3. Cymbalta: $5.432 billion
4. Humira: $5.352 billion
5. Crestor: $5.318 billion
6. Advair Diskus: $5.114 billion
7. Enbrel: $4.673 billion
8. Remicade: $4.058 billion
9. Copaxone: $3.789 billion
10. Neulasta: $3.358 billion