Psoriasis drug Enbrel to account for less than one-fifth of sales in 2018 overall market

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that, owing to increasing competition from other biologic agents, Amgen/Pfizer/Takeda's Enbrel (etanercept)—the leading therapy in the psoriasis drug market in 2008—will account for less than one-fifth of sales in the overall market in 2018. In 2008, Enbrel garnered half of the psoriasis drug market share in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan.

The Pharmacor 2010 findings from the topic entitled Psoriasis show that the continued uptake of marketed and emerging drugs from the interleukin inhibitors and TNF-alpha inhibitors drug classes and the anticipated launch of biosimilar etanercept will continue to erode Enbrel's near-term market share, despite an increase in the penetration of biologics in the moderate to severe patient population. Enbrel will increasingly face strong competition from several drugs, most notably Abbott/Eisai's Humira (a TNF-alpha inhibitor) and Centocor Ortho Biotech/Janssen-Cilag's Stelara (an interleukin inhibitor).

Over the long-term, therapies that are currently in early-stage clinical trials have the potential to further erode the market share of established agents in the psoriasis market.

"Early-stage interleukin inhibitors currently in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials have attracted attention among the physicians and key opinion leaders we interviewed," said Decision Resources Analyst Irene Koulinska, M.D. "While these agents are still in very early development in psoriasis, they have the potential to offer efficacy similar to that of Stelara as well as improved target selectivity."

The Pharmacor 2010 findings also reveal that, following last month's regulatory approvals in Japan of Humira and Centocor/Merck/Mitsubishi Tanabe's Remicade for the treatment of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, sales projections for these two drugs in Japan remain consistent with Decision Resources' previous forecast. In 2018 in Japan, Humira sales will be $40 million and sales of Remicade will be $16 million.