Rheumatoid arthritis treatment market to exceed $10bn

New drugs and continued uptake of Enbrel and Humira will drive the market for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment to more than US$10bn within a decade, predicts a report from US research and advisory group for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues Decision Resources.

It finds that the continued uptake of currently marketed TNF-a inhibitors and the launch and uptake of novel biological agents will drive robust growth in the rheumatoid arthritis treatment market in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Japan. New biological agents including Orencia and Rituxan/MabThera represent important treatment advances.

According to the report, Rheumatoid Arthritis, the driving force behind market growth will be the continued uptake of currently marketed, high-priced TNF-a inhibitors, especially Amgen/Wyeth/Takeda's Enbrel (etanercept), and Abbott/Eisai's Humira (adalimumab).

Market growth will also be driven by the launch and uptake of novel, expensive biological agents including Bristol-Myers Squibb's Orencia (abatacept), Biogen Idec/Genentech/Chugai/Zenyaku Kogyo's Rituxan (rituximab), and Roche's MabThera (rituximab).

Melissa Stolpher, analyst at Decision Resources, said: "We expect TNF-a inhibitors to remain the most widely prescribed biological agents for the treatment of RA because they have the most established efficacy and safety records of any biological agents approved for the disease.

"Recently launched treatments, specifically abatacept and rituximab, represent important advances in RA pharmacotherapy owing to their novel mechanisms of action. However, these agents will likely be used as follow-on therapies for patients whose disease fails to respond adequately to TNF-a inhibition."

The report adds that the biological agents Enbrel, Centocor/Schering-Plough/Tanabe's Remicade (infliximab), and Humira are the top-selling therapies to treat the disease, with combined major-market sales totalling $4.6bn in 2005.