Shionogi's COVID-19 Pill, Based On Similar Action Like Pfizer's, Sees Around $2B In Annual Sales - Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)

Japanese pharmaceutical company Shionogi & Co Ltd's CEO believes its COVID-19, Xocova, pill can generate $2 billion in annual sales if it secures FDA approval.
The company expects U.S. approval by late 2024.
The treatment is a protease inhibitor, just like Paxlovid, the COVID-19 treatment made by Pfizer Inc PFE.
"I think $2 billion out of the COVID-19 market is not very difficult," he said, basing his estimate on Pfizer's forecast for more than $20 billion in COVID-related sales in 2023.
Japanese regulators granted emergency approval in November, making it the nation's first domestically produced oral treatment for COVID.
CEO Isao Teshirogi told Reuters that the drug could be approved in South Korea and China as early as next month.
While Xocova came later to the market than Shionogi initially hoped for after Japanese regulators twice requested more data, the company says interim results of a study suggest taking the pill could lessen a patient's chances of developing long COVID.
"If you kill the virus fast enough and sharp enough, the lower the probability of long COVID. That's our hypothesis, but we need to prove that," Teshirogi said in an interview.
Shionogi sold 2 million courses of Xocova, taken once daily for five days, to the Japanese government last year for ¥100 billion yen.
Jefferies analyst estimates that only about 11,000 courses of Xocova are consumed monthly in Japan.
Shionogi hopes for Xocova sales of around $1 billion to $1.5 billion this year.
Price Action: PFE shares are down 1.52% at $41.13 on the last check Monday
Photo: Image by Thomas Breher from Pixabay

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