Enbrel and Humira Continue to Be Used as the Preferred First and Second Line Biologic Agents to Treat Rheumatoid Arthritis, but Orencia SC’s Usage Has Increased over the Last Six Months

July 10, 2012 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time EXTON, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BioTrends Research Group, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for specialized biopharmaceutical issues, finds that there has been a slight increase in the past twelve months in the use of biologic agents across the disease severity scale, according to surveyed physicians in the most recent TreatmentTrends®: Rheumatoid Arthritis (US) report. Despite some variability over the past year in their share movement, surveyed rheumatologists report that their use of Pfizer's Enbrel and Abbott's Humira has remained stable since the second quarter of 2011. Surveyed physicians prefer Enbrel and Humira as their first and second line biologic agents, while the combined formulations of Bristol-Myers Squibb's Orencia are the dominant third and fourth line agents. When biologics with an alternate mechanism of action (MOA) are prescribed first line, the Orencia brand leads Genentech's Rituxan and Actemra. The introduction of Orencia SC has led the overall share increase in those biologics with an alternative MOA since its launch in the fourth quarter of 2011. Close to one-half of surveyed physicians are prescribing Orencia SC for patients who were previously on TNF therapy, and over one-third are switching patients from Orencia IV. The main value of Orencia SC is its SC administration with a different MOA according to more than three-quarters of surveyed rheumatologists. When asked about new products in development for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 75 percent of surveyed respondents had unaided awareness of new treatments in development. Ninety-one percent were aware of Pfizer's tofacitinib (JAK inhibitor), which is currently under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's new drug application (NDA) review. Close to one-quarter of surveyed rheumatologists were aware of Rigel/AstraZeneca's fostamatinib (Syk kinase inhibitor), which is in phase III development. TreatmentTrends: Rheumatoid Arthritis (US) is a syndicated quarterly report series that examines current trends in the management of RA from the perspective of rheumatologists with a focus on analyzing their attitudes, perceptions and self-reported prescribing behavior. In addition, this report provides insight into practice patterns, and current and projected use of various products. Also evaluated are perceived product advantages and disadvantages, as well as sales and messaging efforts of key market players. The Q2 2012 wave was fielded with 101 rheumatologists in the United States in May and June 2012 via an online survey. A parallel annual report covering the European market (EU5) will be available in November 2012, and BioTrends will continue to track the uptake of Orencia SC in the four-wave post-launch report LaunchTrends®: Orencia SC. This report series is tracking the uptake of Bristol-Myers Squibb's Orencia SC at one month, three months, six months and one year following launch, and the first three waves of the report are published.

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