Humira becomes Britain’s first biotech blockbuster
pharmafile | January 26, 2006 | News story | Research and Development |Â Â Â
The UK biotech company which discovered rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira has hailed its success after sales passed the $1 billion mark for the first time.
Licensed to Abbott worldwide, the drug officially achieved blockbuster status with 2005 sales figures taking it over the magic $1 billion mark.
The breakthrough makes Humira easily the most successful drug to emerge from a UK biotech company.
CAT's chief executive Peter Chambre, commented: "This is a major milestone for CAT. Humira is an important product candidate for CAT and we are delighted that it has reached blockbuster status."
The company is using its share of the Humira revenues to expand beyond drug discovery and into development, as well as acquiring promising molecules from other biotech companies.
"The success of Humira is vital to CAT's progress as a product-based biopharmaceutical business and we look forward to further success in 2006 as Abbott continues to expand the range of approved indications," said Chambre.
The drug's development began with CAT signing a major deal in 1993 with Knoll, with the first clinical trials starting in 1997. Knoll was acquired by Abbott Laboratories in 2000, by which time the drug was demonstrating its efficacy.
Approved in December 2002 and launched the following year, Humira has continued to exceed sales forecasts, reaching $1.4 billion in 2005.
Despite being the third TNF-blocker to reach the market, Humira has thrived, and is rapidly expanding its indications, including a licence to treat psoriatic arthritis and early RA in Europe.
Abbott's development resources and marketing muscle have been crucial to the drug's success, with the company's management hailing the drug as a 'pipeline in a product' because of its potential to treat a number of autoimmune diseases.
Phase III clinical trials in chronic plaque psoriasis commenced at the end of 2004 and Abbott has stated that it expects to submit a regulatory application for this indication in 2006 or early 2007.
While the partnership has been a great success in terms of product development, legal disputes over royalties between CAT and Abbott have marred the relationship. The dispute emerged shortly after launch and was only resolved last October after two years of wrangling.
Humira's success is not just a milestone for CAT, but for UK biotech as a whole, proving that the sector's scientists can compete with international rivals, particularly the US.
A number of UK biotech companies with promising technologies and compounds emerged in the 1990s, with some seized on as a major breakthrough, only to disappoint later.
In 2001, Britain's biggest biotech company Celltech signed a major deal with Pharmacia in 2001 to develop its CDP 870, a monoclonal antibody also tipped for success in treating rheumatoid arthritis.
CDP 870 was hailed as a potential blockbuster, but when Pharmacia was bought out by Pfizer in 2003, the pharma company exited the alliance, saying the drug would struggle to compete with Humira and the other TNF-blockers.
Celltech was itself acquired by Belgium's UCB in 2004 with CDP 870 still in development for Crohn's disease.
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