Abbott/Eisai's Humira emerges as market leader in psoriatic arthritis, garnering sales of over $500 million in 2009

Abbott/Eisai's Humira (adalimumab) has emerged as the market leader for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis, generating sales of more than $500 million in 2009 in the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK and Japan, according to research and advisory firm Decision Resources. Despite Humira's later entry to the psoriatic arthritis market behind that of Amgen/Pfizer/Takeda's Enbrel (etancercept), Humira captured more than 40% of market share last year, owing to its efficacy for joint and skin symptoms of psoriatic arthritis as well as its established safety profile and convenient delivery.

The Pharmacor 2010 findings from the topic, titled Psoriatic Arthritis which will be published later this month, reveal that although methotrexate (Dava Pharmaceuticals' Rheumatrex, generics) was the patient share leader in 2009, sales of TNF-alpha inhibitors approved for the indication - most notably, Humira and Enbrel - accounted for an overwhelming majority of major-market sales in 2009. The dominance of sales of TNF-alpha inhibitors in this space is due to their price premium over conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and inexpensive generic versions of methotrexate.

Simponi sales to reach over $200 million in 2019