The 1990s were a golden age for the rapid development of innovative drugs. Many blockbuster products were born in that era, and many pharmaceutical giants were formed in that era. The author based on the interest and hobby of the statistics of the global drug sales, and the establishment of a drug database. By comparing and filtering the data, we came up with 20 super bombshells with cumulative sales of more than $50 billion. However, this article is not to take stock of these super blockbuster, the author's purpose is to reverse through these blockbuster to study the process and operation mode of each big pharmaceutical giant. This article is an opinion article, just for reference. 1. Lipitor (atorvastatin), with cumulative sales of $152.3 billion In the 1970s, Japanese scholars cultivated aspergillus roxb to obtain lovastatin, thus opening the chapter of the inhibitor of hfg-coa reductase. Because of its superior lipid-lowering effect and small adverse reactions, statins quickly became a hot topic in research. Since lovastatin was approved in 1987, the FDA has approved simvastatin, pivastatin, and fluvastatin, and atorvastatin is the fifth hmg-coa reductase inhibitor approved by the FDA. Lipitor was approved in December 1996, listed in early 1997, and reached its peak sales of $13.83 billion in 2006. So far, lipitor has generated $152.3 billion in revenue for Pfizer.
Atorvastatin brings in more revenue than just lipitor alone. Compound Caduet also generates $4 billion in sales. Before lipitor hit the market, Pfizer had sales of about $10 billion, despite blockbuster products such as luoxi and nifedipine. Until 2000, Pfizer's total drug sales after taking over warner lambert were only $22.5 billion. Without lipitor, Pfizer would not have been able to take over Pharmacia and Wyeth to become the largest pharmaceutical company in the world 2. Schmerlot (adamumab), with cumulative sales of $115.9 billion Schmerlot is a TNF inhibitor originally developed by BASF pharma and is a fully humanized monoclonal antibody. The development of adamumab can be traced back to 1993 and was launched in the United States in 2003. In the following years, adamumab has been approved for use in rheumatoid arthritis, ankylospondylitis, crohn's disease, psoriasis and other immunological diseases. Because of its good efficacy and small adverse reactions, adamumab has quickly triggered the treatment demand for immunological diseases and become the gold standard in many treatment fields. Adamumab is a wonderful and versatile player, a medicine king that can be met but not sought.