Humira's early-line growth threatens Enbrel's future uptake in psoriatic arthritis

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms focusing on pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that while Amgen/Pfizer's Enbrel was the most widely used tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha inhibitor for recently treated psoriatic arthritis patients in the fourth quarter of 2010, Abbott's Humira has superseded Enbrel as an early-line TNF-alpha inhibitor for newly diagnosed psoriatic arthritis patients. Humira's early-line growth threatens Enbrel's future uptake in psoriatic arthritis.

“While treatment among recently treated psoriatic arthritis patients demonstrates that Enbrel maintains an edge over Humira, the findings from the analysis of newly diagnosed patients suggest that Enbrel's future uptake in psoriatic arthritis could be threatened by Humira's early-line use”

According to Treatment Algorithms in Psoriatic Arthritis, 28 percent of recently treated psoriatic arthritis patients were prescribed Enbrel, compared with 21.5 percent for Humira. Yet, among newly diagnosed psoriatic arthritis patients, Humira achieves a higher patient share than Enbrel in patients reaching the first and second line of disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy within one year of diagnosis.

"While treatment among recently treated psoriatic arthritis patients demonstrates that Enbrel maintains an edge over Humira, the findings from the analysis of newly diagnosed patients suggest that Enbrel's future uptake in psoriatic arthritis could be threatened by Humira's early-line use," said Decision Resources Analyst Dancella Fernandes, Ph.D., M.B.A. "Humira's success in early-line uptake is likely driven by its superior efficacy on skin manifestations and less frequent subcutaneous dosing."

Enhanced Service and Platform Now Available

The analysis is part of Decision Resources' enhanced Treatment Algorithms series, which features a new online platform. Interactive, user-friendly and with more graphical data views, the new platform enables users to easily toggle between diseases and time cohorts, which ultimately allows for more in-depth analysis on each line of therapy. Treatment Algorithms analysis is now updated quarterly to provide ongoing trending of product utilization by line of therapy and new therapy initiations. Through examination of U.S. patient-level claims data, Decision Resources' Treatment Algorithms series provides exceptional insight into physicians' prescribing trends and the factors that drive therapy choice, from diagnosis through multiple courses of treatment, for a specific disease.