Alli is off to the races in Europe, where it is generating high sales since launching in April, GlaxoSmithKline says. The orlistat 60 mg product is seeing "sustained demand through the subsequent weeks of performance," GSK CEO Andrew Witty said July 22 during the firm's fiscal 2009 second-quarter earnings call.
Alli garnered 56 million British pounds in European Union sales ($92.1 million under the July 22 exchange rate) during the April-June period. Even U.S. alli sales rose 12 percent to $41.1 million in the quarter, GSK reports in a same-day release.
U.S. sales of alli plummeted 53 percent to $139 million in fiscal 2008 after a wildly successful June 2007 launch. GSK plans to introduce the drug to markets outside the U.S. and Europe in the third quarter (1 'The Tan Sheet' Feb. 9, 2009).
Witty discussed the strategy behind the U.K. company's consumer business, which experienced 9 percent growth of worldwide sales to $1.92 billion. Global market growth during the same three-month timeframe increased only 1 percent, the firm said.
"Excellent marketing, constant innovation, making sure our products are front-of-shelf, geographic expansion of businesses we acquire, buy new businesses and take switches every few years from other companies or from GSK labs," he said. "You've seen all of that been applied."
GSK said in its earnings release that consumer brand innovations launched in the last three years comprised sales of more than $164.7 million in the quarter.
The company's U.S. consumer segment sales expanded 3 percent during the second quarter to $418.4 million.
Over the first half of 2009, GSK consumer health grew 5 percent to $843.3 million in the U.S. and 7 percent to $3.8 billion globally.
Witty highlighted the company's oral care segment, which shot up 10 percent to $116.9 million in U.S. sales during the second quarter, and includes five of the top 10 U.S. toothpaste stock-keeping units.
"That's because we've innovated our products and we advertise our products at the right level," he explained.
The Sensodyne toothpaste franchise increased its U.S. sales 20 percent in the quarter to $37.9 million, though sales of Aquafresh products dropped 6 percent to $34.6 million.
Biotene stood out in the U.S., growing 26 percent during the second quarter while the mouthwash category contracted 1 percent, Witty said. GSK acquired the mouthwash from Laclede in October 2008 as part of its aggressive strategy for acquiring bolt-on brands (2 'Health News Daily' Jan. 21, 2009).
[Editor's note: Read more about this topic in 3 'The Tan Sheet,' your source for nonprescription pharmaceutical and nutritional industry news. For more information call 1-800-332-2181.]
-- Dan Schiff (d.schiff@elsevier.com)
