Psoriasis drug market to double from $3.4 billion in 2009 to $6.8 billion in 2019: Pharmacor 2010

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that the continued uptake of marketed and emerging interleukin and TNF-alpha inhibitors and a twofold increase in the penetration of biologics in the moderate-to-severe population will drive the psoriasis drug market to double from $3.4 billion in 2009 to $6.8 billion in 2019 in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan.

The Pharmacor 2010 findings from the topic entitled Psoriasis reveal that while Amgen/GlaxoSmithKline/Pfizer/Takeda's Enbrel maintained its market dominance in 2009 -- earning $1.3 billion in sales -- it will face stiff competition from Abbott/Eisai's Humira and the interleukin inhibitors. The uptake of interleukin inhibitors such as Centocor Ortho Biotech/Janssen-Cilag's Stelara and Abbott's briakinumab, combined with the entry of biosimilar formulations, will reduce Enbrel's market share from more than one third of sales in 2009 to less than one-quarter of sales in 2019.

"In 2011, Humira will overtake Enbrel as the new market leader with blockbuster sales of $2.3 billion by 2019 -- nearly double that of Enbrel's sales in that year," said Decision Resources Analyst Iva Holder, Ph.D. "The interleukin inhibitor Stelara, which launched last year, will rank third in 2019, garnering approximately $970 million in sales. Additionally, briakinumab -- the most promising interleukin inhibitor, is poised to compete for first-line biologic use and its sales will exceed $800 million in 2019."

The Pharmacor 2010 findings also reveal that none of the oral agents in development, which include Isotechnika Pharma's voclosporin and Celgene's apremilast, appear to offer major advantages over marketed systemic therapies, and their potential launch is not expected to have a notable impact on the psoriasis drug market over the next decade.