GlaxoSmithKline/HGS's Benlysta will push SLE drug market to more than $1.6 billion in 2019

Driven primarily by the launch and uptake of Human Genome Sciences and GlaxoSmithKline's Benlysta (belimumab), the systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) drug market will quadruple from about $400 million in 2009 to more than $1.6 billion in 2019 in the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Japan, according to advisory firm Decision Resources.

The Pharmacor 2010 findings from the topic titled Systemic Lupus Erythematosus reveal that the majority of sales in 2009 were generated by the off-label use of two branded agents - market leader Roche/Galenica's CellCept and the biologic, rituximab (Biogen Idec/Roche/Chugai/Zenyaku Kogyo's Rituxan, Roche's MabThera). In 2019, drugs from the B-cell modulator drug class such as rituximab and Benlysta will account for approximately three-quarters of the overall market.

"Rituximab will emerge as the market leader in 2019, with the premium-priced biologic, Benlysta, as a close second," said Decision Resources analyst Dancella Fernandes. "Rituximab's uptake will be driven by its use for SLE manifestations that are refractory to current treatments. Despite the drug's failed clinical trials for both SLE and lupus nephritis, rituximab's off-label uptake in the indication highlights the challenges associated with drug development, the high unmet need in this indication and the unusual dynamics of the SLE market," she noted.