Patients on Enbrel work longer, says study
pharmafile | September 7, 2009 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing |Â Â Enbrel, RAÂ
Rheumatoid arthritis patients taking Enbrel are able to keep working for longer, according to a new study comparing its affects to standard treatment alone.
But the study can be only a small boost to Wyeth and Amgen, as their blockbuster faces biogeneric erosion and losing market share to newer branded drugs in its class.
According to the new COMET study in the Rheumatology Journal, patients on Enbrel (etanercept) in combination with methotrexate for early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are more likely to continue working.
The study involved over 500 patients. One-year results comparing the impact of methotrexate alone with methotrexate in combination with Enbrel on work productivity, showed that active early RA patients receiving the Enbrel-methotrexate combination were nearly three times less likely to stop working compared to patients receiving methotrexate alone.
Furthermore, work absenteeism was reduced by almost 50% in the combination group.
Professor Aslam Anis of the school of population and public Health at university of British Columbia, and lead author of the paper, said: “Keeping a person gainfully employed represents a benefit to society, above and beyond, the clinical benefits of treatment.
“The fact that half of the work stoppages occurred in the first three months of this trial, together with the fact that there were significantly fewer work stoppages in the Enbrel-methotrexate combination group, underscore the importance of early and aggressive treatment of RA.”
RA is a chronic and progressive disease that affects 2.9 million people across Europe. As the disease progresses, RA can cause permanent damage to the joints, resulting in deformity and loss of independence.
Progression of the disease is slowed by the use of disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), which target the immune system to slow the immunological attack on the affected joints.
The leading drugs in the class are the blockbusters Enbrel, J&J’s Remicade, and Abbott’s Humira and they are currently thought to offer the most promising route to slowing or even halting the disease.
But although these drugs have dominated the market for years, it has recently become more crowded with newer entrants like Orencia from BMS and UCB’s Cimzia.
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