TaiGen Biopharmaceuticals Holdings Ltd (太景醫藥研發控股) yesterday said that monthly sales of its antibiotic in China last month surpassed 10,000 units for the first time.
The company reported that sales of Taigexyn (nemonoxacin), TaiGen’s non-fluorinated quinolone antibacterial drug, reached 11,300 units last month, with total volume in the first nine months rising 563 percent compared with the same period a year ago.
The company expects growth in China to accelerate as more hospitals adopt the drug.
This year, more than 100 Chinese hospitals are prescribing Taigexyn, compared with about 80 last year, the company said.
That has pushed unit sales from several hundred each month to several thousand, leading to a peak last month, it added.
However, the sales gain has yet to be reflected in the company’s revenue, which is due to a lag in accounting recognition, it said.
The company takes 7 to 11 percent in royalties on sales in China, which are tallied quarterly and booked about two months later, an investor relations manager said by telephone.
The drug, which became commercialized in China in 2016, is expected to reach peak sales in three to five years, as marketing and hospital preparation efforts begin to bear fruit, the manager said.
Zhejiang Medicine Co (浙江醫藥集團), the company’s distribution partner in China, is positioning Taigexyn as a replacement for levofloxacin and moxifloxacin, which are China’s top-selling antibiotics commanding 60 and 34 percent of the market respectively, TaiGen CEO Hsu Ming-chu (許明珠) said.
An intravenous version of Taigexyn is expected to gain marketing approval in China by the end of this year or early next year, TaiGen chief Asian commercial officer Huang Kuo-long (黃國龍) said, adding that 80 percent of antibiotics in China are administered intravenously.
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