Regeneron (REGN) and Sanofi's (SNY) rheumatoid arthritis drug is 15% to 30% cheaper than rival drugs from Amgen (AMGN), AbbVie (ABBV) and Roche (RHHBY), an analyst said Tuesday after the duo's Kevzara grabbed Food and Drug Administration approval. Kevzara's approval comes seven months after the FDA delayed its approval on issues with manufacturing at a French factory where the drug is filled. The approval is for patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis who don't respond to other anti-rheumatic drugs. "The approval came on time and with a label that more or less matches our expectations," Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges said in a note to clients. Kevzara can be prescribed alone or in combination with FDA-approved methotrexate. It is a self-administered injection. Like Roche's Actemra, which belongs to the same class of drugs, Kevzara is associated with an increased risk of serious and minor infections, liver issues and injection-site reactions. But it's also at a 15% discount to Actemra at $39,000 annually. "With discounts, (it) should offer a cost-effective treatment option for payers in this setting," Porges said. Kevzara costs 30% less than Amgen's Enbrel and AbbVie's Humira, which are widely prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis, though belong to a different drug class. Regeneron and Sanofi expect European approval to come later this year and see Kevzara hitting the market in the U.S. within a few weeks. But Porges sees the drug as a minimal driver and forecasts $37 million in sales this year, growing to $456 million in 2021. A number of drug classes address rheumatoid arthritis, he noted. The field is likely to become more crowded later this year when Dow component Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) adds its drug sirukimab to the lineup and as more in a class dubbed JAK inhibitors arrive in 2018-19. "Kevzara contributes approximately 11% of our expected sales of joint Sanofi-Regeneron products in 2018, but this falls to 5% long term as expected growth of (eczema drug) Dupixent and even (cholesterol-lowering drug) Praluent rapidly eclipse Kevzara's importance," Porges said. The consensus forecasts Kevzara sales at $56 million this year, growing to $705 million by 2020 and hitting $1.1 billion by 2025.
You are forgetting the point. This price means that even for a new drug, they should have decent access More treatments, even if this takes 10% of patients, some of those would have been Enbrel patients. The 15% Enbrel decline can only get worse. JnJ will soon have another drug in RA. It would be huge either but a 5-10% share will cost all current RA drugs including Enbrel Humira has new indications and more indications so it has less revenue risk (GI, HS, Uveitis,etc)
yawner. it'll compete in the il6 space with Roche but it'll likely have little impact on the TNF market. One person's opinion
The IL-6 drug whetted analysts’ expectations last March when it beat out AbbVie’s Humira in a head-to-head showdown for rheumatoid arthritis. Leerink highlighted the price competition with a nod to the lower price model. As importantly, Kevzara is also approximately 15% below the price of Actemra at the highest dose and, with discounts, should offer a cost effective treatment option for payers in this setting. In a recent Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) analysis, Kevzara did not reach a typical $100,000 per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) cost effectiveness threshold at this level, but neither did any of the other widely prescribed biologicals for this disease, including Enbrel, Humira, Cimzia, Orencia, Actemra and Xeljanz.
One way or another this company needs to reinvest in itself instead of sitting back on a 20 year old product and keeping tired apathetic losers on its payroll
