For the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis, Surveyed European Rheumatologists Expect Well-Established TNF-Alpha Inhibitors to Lose Considerable Patient Share to Newer Agents in This Drug Class

BURLINGTON, Mass., Oct. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that, between 2010 and 2013, surveyed European rheumatologists expect well-established TNF-alpha inhibitors to lose considerable patient share to newer agents in this drug class, most notably Centocor Ortho Biotech/Merck/Mitsubishi Tanabe/Janssen's Simponi and UCB/Otsuka's Cimzia. The increased use of newer agents such as Simponi and Cimzia will most likely occur in newly diagnosed patients and/or in patients who do not respond to initial treatment with a biologic agent.

The new European Physician & Payer Forum report entitled Rheumatoid Arthritis in Europe: How Are Physicians and Payers Responding to an Expanding Arsenal of Biologic Agents? finds that the well-entrenched TNF-alpha inhibitors that stand to lose patient share include Amgen/Pfizer/Takeda's Enbrel, Abbott/Eisai's Humira and Centocor Ortho Biotech/Merck/Mitsubishi Tanabe's Remicade. Surveyed European rheumatologists expect a particularly substantial decline by 2013 in the in-class patient share of Remicade -- the only currently marketed intravenous (IV) TNF-alpha inhibitor.

"However, Remicade's lost patient share among TNF-alpha inhibitors will not be fully replaced by uptake of Simponi IV," said Decision Resources Analyst Martin Quinn. "Additionally, considerably more physicians from France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom expect to prescribe subcutaneous Simponi than expect to prescribe Simponi IV. This trend will be least pronounced in Italy, where rheumatologists report high patient share for Remicade."

The report findings also suggest that the opportunity to gain patient share is set to increase for recently launched and emerging biologics with alternative mechanisms of action. These agents include Bristol-Myers Squibb's Orencia, Roche/Chugai's RoActemra and Genmab/GlaxoSmithKline's Arzerra. Most notably, surveyed rheumatologists from France, Italy, and Spain predict that at least 40 percent of their patients treated with TNF-alpha inhibitors will receive a subsequent biologic with an alternative mechanism of action by the end of 2013.

The report also finds that patient cost-sharing for rheumatoid arthritis drugs does not pose a significant barrier to treatment for patients in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. For example, because patients with severe progressive rheumatoid arthritis in France make no out-of-pocket payments for biologics, private insurers -- most of whom cover only out-of-pocket costs -- do not play a central role in determining access to rheumatoid arthritis drugs.

The report is based on a survey of 250 rheumatologists from Germany (50), France (50), Italy (51), Spain (50) and the United Kingdom (50) and interviews with 16 European payers from Germany (3), France (3), Italy (4), Spain (3) and the United Kingdom (3).

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