The Business Unit CardioMetabolic Care and General Medicine comprises our drugs for treating diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and thyroid disorders, as well as other products and regional specialties. The interrelationships that exist between many chronic cardiovascular and metabolic diseases are the causes of multiple complex clinical pictures that call for integrated therapeutic approaches. We are continually working to improve our products, for example by developing new dosage forms and strengths.
At EUR 1,888 million, sales by this Business Unit grew by 4.4%. We expanded our position in many dynamic markets. For example, our CardioMetabolic Care products have made us one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical companies in Latin America and Asia. In Latin America we rank among the top 15 pharmaceutical companies. However, price reductions in Europe and generic competition in France, our largest market in terms of sales, had a negative impact. Overall, the decline in sales of beta-blockers was more than offset by higher sales of diabetes and thyroid medicines.
Concor®: Strong performance in growth markets, fierce competition in Europe
Sales of branded Concor® products containing the active ingredient bisoprolol amounted to EUR 373 million. This was 5.3% less than in 2009. One reason was generic competition in France, where sales dropped by 35% to EUR 62 million. Yet in Europe, our largest market for this product group, bisoprolol remains the leading beta-blocker, used in products such as Lodoz® and Concor® COR.
Sales in Venezuela, our largest market in Latin America, suffered an inflation-induced decline of 50% to EUR 11 million.
By contrast, Concor® branded products were successful in growth markets. Sales in Africa, Asia, Australasia grew 30% to EUR 98 million.
Glucophage® franchise continues on a growth course
Worldwide, around 285 million people suffer from type 2 diabetes and the number is rising. More than seven million patients worldwide rely on our oral metformin products to treat this condition. Metformin, which is contained in our product Glucophage®, remains the drug of choice for first-line treatment of type 2 diabetes.
The branded products from the Glucophage® franchise generated sales of EUR 316 million – an increase of 8.4%. Slight sales declines in Europe were more than offset by double-digit growth in the markets of Latin America and Asia. In Latin America, Glucophage® is the leading product in the diabetes market. With growth of 34%, sales outperformed the market by six percentage points on a U.S. dollar basis. In addition, product line extensions continued to perform successfully. Sales of Glucophage XR® rose by 21% to EUR 69 million. We had launched a 1000 mg dosage strength of this product in 2009. With Glucovance® 1000 mg/5 mg, a combination of the active ingredients metformin and glibenclamide, we began launching a new dosage strength in 2010.
Thyroid products show good growth
Merck is the world’s largest supplier of drugs to treat thyroid disorders. Sales of these products grew by 7.6% to EUR 170 million. Despite generic competition, sales in Europe declined by only 1.3%. By contrast, sales in Latin America increased sharply by 30% and by 3.9% in Asia, Africa, Australasia. Sales of our key product, the thyroid hormone Euthyrox®, increased by 7.7% to EUR 148 million. Approximately 15 million patients in about 90 countries around the world receive treatment with Euthyrox®.
Worldwide, more than 300 million people suffer from hypothyroidism yet not even 20% of them are treated. We want to educate the public and promote optimum treatment of these disorders. Therefore, in May we conducted our second major public awareness campaign together with the International Thyroid Association. Activities took place in 45 countries.
Strong regional performance of other General Medicine products
Due to our good competitive positions in major markets outside Europe, our other General Medicine products, some of which are only sold in certain regions, generated sales of EUR 977 million. This was 5.4% more than in 2009.