Headcount: 10,183
Revenues: $4,584 (-21%)
Net Income: $363 (-3%)
R&D: $1,103 (-17%)

TOP SELLING DRUGS  

Eisai didn’t make it into the echelons of the Top 25 last year, but even suffering a reasonably sizable slide in income it has snuck in at the bottom this time around. Its financial figures aren’t necessarily unexpected as the Japanese manufacturer has suffered heavily following the patent losses of Alzheimer’s drug Aricpet and AcipHex, its PPI in recent years.

Eisai has openly publicized its intentions to remodel its portfolio and indeed have, focusing instead, as many of the big pharma have, on cancer therapies as well as developing its epilepsy products. The company is still benefitting from Humira alongside AbbVie, but will face the same patent issues come 2018.

The company has had some good news on the licensing front with Lenvima (lenvatinib), an in-house developed anti-cancer therapy achieving FDA approval in March in the U.S. for differentiated throat cancer, and several weeks later EMA approval followed. Eisai has put money behind its weight loss drug Bleviq (lorcaserin HCl), but this is a rocky road with new competition and it makes you wonder, will it be enough?

Eisai and Biogen formed a collaboration to develop and commercialize two of Eisai’s clinical candidates for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), E2609 and BAN2401. Eisai also has an option to jointly develop and commercialize two of Biogen’s AD candidates, an anti-amyloid beta antibody BIIB037 and an anti-tau monoclonal antibody.

Recently, in March, Eisai and Merck, through a subsidiary, entered a clinical trial collaboration to evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy, pembrolizumab (Keytruda), in combination with Eisai oncology compounds lenvatinib mesylate (a multi-targeting RTK inhibitor marketed in the U.S. as Lenvima) and eribulin mesylate (a microtubule dynamics inhibitor marketed as Halaven) in multiple clinical trials. The studies are expected to begin in 2H15.

In April Eisai Inc., the U.S. subsidiary announced that it would reduce its workforce by 25% to drive efficiency and focus, an action that never looks good in the press. On top of that, its breast cancer drug Halaven (erilubin) was de-listed from the CDF in the UK in January this year effectively making it unprescribable on the NHS—Eisai has won a stay of execution until NHS England has ‘reconsidered’ its decision but it will be interesting to see if Eisai can hold its position next year.

—Adele Graham-King

Headcount: 10,495
Pharma Revenues: $6,647 (-14%)
Total Revenues: $6,941 (-16%)
Net Income: $584 (-21%)
R&D Budget: $1,457 (-8%)

Top Selling Drugs

Account for 62% of total pharma sales, down from 66% in 2011

Headcount: 11,560
Pharma Revenues: $8,542 (4%/-4%*)
Total Revenues: $8,996 (4%/-4%*)
Net Income: $789 (981%/67%*)
R&D Budget: $1,697 (-12%/-19%*)

* Converted at avg. exch. rate / based on reported currency (JPY)

Top-Selling Drugs in 2010

Account for 59% of total pharma sales, down from 62% in 2009.

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