Abbott/Eisai's Humira has emerged as leading psoriasis agent

For the treatment of psoriasis, Abbott/Eisai’s Humira (adalimumab) has displaced Amgen/Stiefel/Pfizer/Takeda’s Enbrel (etanercept) as the preferred first-line biologic in several markets and Humira became the leading agent in 2011 with sales of more than $1.4 billion in the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Japan, according to the latest findings of health care advisory firm Decision Resources.

However, while Humira will maintain its patient-share dominance among biologics through 2021, sales of the agent will start to decline in 2018 owing to deeper penetration of Janssen Biotech/Janssen Cilag’s Stelara (ustekinumab), intensified competition from emerging agents, and to a lesser extent, the market entry of biosimilars. Meanwhile, sales of Enbrel will continue to decline, from just under one-third of total psoriasis sales in 2011 to less than one-eighth of sales in 2021.

Healthy uptake of Stelara