New potential blockbuster RA treatment enters European market
pharmafile | June 27, 2017 | News story | Sales and Marketing | AbbVie, Humria, Kevzara, Regeneron, Sanofi
The world’s biggest selling drug, AbbVie’s Humira with $16 billion in sales last year, has a new rival in the European market, as Sanofi and Regeneron’s Kevzara (sarilumab) has gained marketing authorisation from the European Commission in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The drug is already predicted to take a $1 billion and above slice of the market place, after preceding approvals in the US and Canada.
The drug can now be used in Europe for the treatment of those with moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis RA, in combination with methotrexate. However, the drug has also been approved as a monotherapy in cases where methotrexate is not well tolerated or is unsuitable.
Kevzara will enter a market that is becoming increasingly crowded, with Roche’s Actemra approved for use in RA and previously mentioned Humira still holding its dominant position. Kevzara needs to be administered every two weeks and so holds an advantage over Actemra, which is injected every week.
There is also expected competition from GSK and J&J’s sirukumab, which is under review and holds the advantage of potentially only needing one dose per month.
The treatments are part of a group of monocloncal antibodies that bind to interleukin-6 receptor (IL-6R), which effectively block the body’s excessive inflammatory response within joints.
“RA is a chronic and debilitating lifelong disease and despite existing treatment options, there are still patients in need of an effective alternative,” added Peter Kuiper, General Manager UK & Ireland at Sanofi Genzyme. “Sarilumab presents an additional option for those people and is a welcome addition to the physician’s prescribing toolkit.”
The battle of IL-6 inhibitors is mainly being fought now in the pricing arena, to grab those patients in need of an alternative treatment. The price of Kevzara, in the US, is $39,000 – a price point that is substantially lower than the better-known, Humira.
The company will be hoping that a similar pricing move in Europe will be able to garner it a small space within the market to grow – especially as head-to-head data displayed superior efficacy of Kevzara over Humira.
Ben Hargreaves
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