Top Selling Drugs in 2014

The top selling U.S. drugs by sales (as opposed to prescriptions) in 2014 are listed below. The sales were tracked on a 12 month rolling basis from mid 2013 to mid 2014 by research firm IMS Health.

1.  Abilify $7,240 billion
2.  Humira $6,310
3.  Nexium $6,303
4.  Crestor $5,672
5.  Enbrel $5,097
6.  Advair Diskus $5,064
7.  Sovaldi  $4,469
8.  Remicade $4,342
9.  Lantus Solostar $3,829
10. Neulasta $3,688

Abilify achieved the number one spot in 2014 despite receiving an FDA issued black box warning in 2006.

Elderly people with psychosis related-dementia treated with antipsychotic 

medicines including ABILIFY, are at an increased risk of death compared to placebo. ABILIFY is not approved for the treatment of patients with dementia-related psychosis.

I continue to believe that Acadia Pharmaceutical's drug Nuplazid will become palliative care for the elderly, and follow in the footsteps of Abilify, on a sales growth basis over time. The drug has shown an improved safety profile to that of other atypical antipsychotics already approved. The company has mentioned that a clean label is highly probable when Nuplazid gets approval for Parkinson's Disease Psychosis in 2015.  A clean label for Nuplazid could prompt Neurologist and Psychiatrists to switch at a high rate, and prescribe the drug more readily off-label for similar indications. Sales will likely start strong, as new patients will be prescribed Nuplazid for Parkinson's Disease Psychosis (PDP), existing patients under another therapy will switch at a high rate, and the drug could eventually become an add-on, to existing therapies in other areas, such as cognition. Thank you for reading.